Royalties owed back to the oil company after an Amended declaration of pooled unit

General Mineral Rights Discussion
1

To start simply, a declaration of pooled units was in place recorded 3-3-2012 effective 12-21-2011 (470.161943 acres), the well had been fracked in June, royalty payments were being made for over 7 months, they filed a first amendment to declaration of pooled unit 1-17-2013 effective 12-21-2011, now instead of having 13 acres in the pooling I have 1.8. Some land owners are not even in the pooling now and new ones were added. CHK states landowners will owe the amount paid back to their new net acres in the unit. What about the landowners not in at all now? Is this normal? Did someone sue someone to change the pooling? Whose to say the first pooled unit was incorrect and this one is correct.

In my particular situation to make it more confusing, the mineral rights, from my father, were severed and filed to me 1-2012, we called CHK to explain, in 1-2012, and they said they would take care of it. My father received a royalty check about 90 days ago, we were both surprised as he did not own the rights during that period of time. Called CHK and they had dropped the ball. So they suspended payment on any other future checks until they transfer the lease which is supposed to take 30-90 days, it's been 90 days. Basically the first check he got would amount to the new total amount due since they sadly reduced my number of acres in the pooling.

2

State? You first need to look at the pooling clause in your lease, and if you signed a unit agreement, look at that also.

3

Carroll County Ohio. No Division orders, I'm assuming that's what you're calling unit agreement, were signed before they started paying. At least not me.

4

I hope that you had a Pugh Clause in your Lease, or some other wording requiring the Lessee/Assign to release the 11.2 acres back to you so that you can lease them again. Otherwise, for as long as your Lease is "Held by Production" on the unit containing the 1.8 acres, you probably will never see any income from the 11.2 acres. For future reference, also consider a Pool All Acreage Clause and consider taking your lease to an oil-and-gas attorney, especially if you have minerals under more than a couple of acres.