“… what I expected it to be?” I had no expectations :o) This is 320 acres near Lignite, N.D.(Homesteaded by my family waybackwhen.) It produced oil & gas from the 50’s through the 90’s & was then capped. I sold the land in '06 and retained the mineral rights. It was a total surprise that Oasis had drilled a new (apparently) well on the property. It “went active” in mid-May this year. Total output for mid-May through August was 12,201.21 bls. and I received a check for $15,296.79. The “rights lease” on the property expires in April of 2011 and I will negotiate a new deal at that time. I don’t have a clue if this is considered to be a “good” or a “bad” deal, but I certainly appreciate the revenue check :o)
Lou Wheeler said:
Hal- this is what we heard too from Brigham Oil that they send that letter first. I don’t want to get too into your business but was your check what you thought it was going to be? Like in our case we own 15% royalties on 50 acres of land and find that it is hard to guess what we might be receiving. Brigham ha 47% working interest so is our 15% based on 100% of the proceeds or the 47% or 53%. Seems like so many variables come into play. Thank you in advance for any light you might be able to shed. Lou
Hal Stoen said:
I don’t know if it always works this way, but our “heads up” that a royalty check was forthcoming was our receipt of a “Division Order” from the oil company (Oasis). We had to verify that we were the mineral rights owners. We received our first check about 3 weeks after we filled it out and returned it to them.
Lou Wheeler said:
Thanks Hal for the info we are still waiting for payment on our well for both.
Hal Stoen said:
Oil only sir. I read on one of these forums though that the gas is burned off the first few months of production. The check was for the first month of production (May) and the next three months (June, July & August).
Lou Wheeler said:
Thanks Hal- did you get paid for gas and oil production or was it just for the oil production?
Lou
Hal Stoen said:
I have mineral rights in Burke County. The well started producing in May of this year. I received my first royalty check the first week of October.
Hal
Thanks Hal - for your honesty. We will appreciate anything we get too! 
Hal Stoen said:
“… what I expected it to be?” I had no expectations :o) This is 320 acres near Lignite, N.D.(Homesteaded by my family waybackwhen.) It produced oil & gas from the 50’s through the 90’s & was then capped. I sold the land in '06 and retained the mineral rights. It was a total surprise that Oasis had drilled a new (apparently) well on the property. It “went active” in mid-May this year. Total output for mid-May through August was 12,201.21 bls. and I received a check for $15,296.79. The “rights lease” on the property expires in April of 2011 and I will negotiate a new deal at that time. I don’t have a clue if this is considered to be a “good” or a “bad” deal, but I certainly appreciate the revenue check :o)
Lou Wheeler said:
Hal- this is what we heard too from Brigham Oil that they send that letter first. I don’t want to get too into your business but was your check what you thought it was going to be? Like in our case we own 15% royalties on 50 acres of land and find that it is hard to guess what we might be receiving. Brigham ha 47% working interest so is our 15% based on 100% of the proceeds or the 47% or 53%. Seems like so many variables come into play. Thank you in advance for any light you might be able to shed. Lou
Hal Stoen said:
I don’t know if it always works this way, but our “heads up” that a royalty check was forthcoming was our receipt of a “Division Order” from the oil company (Oasis). We had to verify that we were the mineral rights owners. We received our first check about 3 weeks after we filled it out and returned it to them.
Lou Wheeler said:
Thanks Hal for the info we are still waiting for payment on our well for both.
Hal Stoen said:
Oil only sir. I read on one of these forums though that the gas is burned off the first few months of production. The check was for the first month of production (May) and the next three months (June, July & August).
Lou Wheeler said:
Thanks Hal- did you get paid for gas and oil production or was it just for the oil production?
Lou
Hal Stoen said:
I have mineral rights in Burke County. The well started producing in May of this year. I received my first royalty check the first week of October.
Hal
We received our Division Order the same day as the first check.
Hal Stoen said:
I don’t know if it always works this way, but our “heads up” that a royalty check was forthcoming was our receipt of a “Division Order” from the oil company (Oasis). We had to verify that we were the mineral rights owners. We received our first check about 3 weeks after we filled it out and returned it to them.
Lou Wheeler said:
Thanks Hal for the info we are still waiting for payment on our well for both.
Hal Stoen said:
Oil only sir. I read on one of these forums though that the gas is burned off the first few months of production. The check was for the first month of production (May) and the next three months (June, July & August).
Lou Wheeler said:
Thanks Hal- did you get paid for gas and oil production or was it just for the oil production?
Lou
Hal Stoen said:
I have mineral rights in Burke County. The well started producing in May of this year. I received my first royalty check the first week of October.
Hal
Mike-
I has another question for you. The oil company said they are waiting on a title opinion to come back from the lawyerss and if we want to we can put in a request to start accumilating interest on our revenues so far. Do you know how long it normally takes to get the title opinion back? Also, is there a form to fill out to request the interest on our revenues since it just past 150 days since production started or is this automatic? Thank you for all of your input this far I appreciate it!
Lou
Mike Igau said:
Lou: Your Division Order will calculate your decimal interest. This decimal interest will be applied to the net proceeds produced in the unit based on your pro rata ownership interest. For example:
Assuming your in a Unit, your net mineral acres will be divided by the total unit acreage and multiply by your royalty interest rate to get your decimal interest. I believe this is correct.
Daily production varies as does market pricing.
Lou Wheeler said:
Mike-
Since you have already been through this process it sounds like, I was wondering how Royalties are paid. Our well has produced over 2000 BOD. So, for instance our royalties are leased at 15% royalty. So would you just take 2000 x 7 days a week x 4 which =
56,000 BOE/per mos. and x this by the price of crude oil which we could say just for discussion is $70 p/barrell. Which this would = $3,920,000.00 and times this by 15% to get our monthly check total ? or are royalties calculated a little different? This is our first producing well so we are not sure how it works.
BTW… I did contact the Royalty Dept on the oil company doing the drilling and you were right they are saying that we will be receiving our division of royalty letter in November and our 1st payment will be for three mos. and be paid some time therafter once they get everyone’s paperwork back. So, thank you for that earlier info.
Lou
Mike Igau said:
Lou: Well spacing is a complicated subject. The TRRC has spacing rules pertaining to characteristics of the formation and depth. There are also lease boundary line rules so the Operator won’t drain the minerals from a neighboring tract. Today much of the drilling is horizontal. Multiple wells can be drilled from the same drilling pad even though the Operator will move the rig about 30’ or so to have a separate well bore. This often happens in the Barnett Shale Play. The penetration point can be several hundred feet away from the first well, for example. I have seen well spacing on these type wells be at 500’ and 1000’ apart. As to lease boundary lines the typical distance from the boundary in the tight shale plays is 330 feet, as determined by the TRRC. Sometimes exceptions to these rules may be permitted by a ruling from the TRRC.
Lou: I can’t help you with the title stuff and interest. You would need to handle this with your Attorney. Good luck.
Phil-
Do you have any idea what a title opinion is and how long something like this takes? Do lawyers have a certain amount of time they can take? We havenever had any trouble with leasing the rights before and the original company we had our leases with said normally this is done before drilling even begins not at the end of the process - before payment is sent out. Any thoughts??
Thanks-
Lou
Philip Mollner said:
North Dakota has a law that states that royalty payments are due within 150 days of when the oil is produced so by December you should have a royalty payment unless there is a dispute of the title (in this case it can drag on for longer). As for the production, the 2000 boe/d was the initial production (IP). The production falls sharply until it stabilizes. Each well has a unique production curve but your well should stabilize at ~400-500 boe/d. However, some of that production is gas (boe=barrel of oil equivalent) which is burned off for the first couple of months so no royalty is paid for the gas. All said and done, you will probably be getting a royalty payment for your Net revenue interest on about 200-350 barrels of oil a day.
Phil
Lou,
A division order title opinion is normally done after the well starts to produce. As far as the time limit, I was talking around and found out that it depends on the oil company…some oil companies are really backlogged so they almost will certainly be late in there distribution of checks. I dont know who the operator of your well is but depending on who, it can give a good idea of how long it will take. Another way to check is to look at ND hearing dockets…usually there are two hearings for a well, 1 before drilling and 1 after…when the second hearing comes up, it normally take 2-3 months after to collect a check…the hearing dockets can be found at:
https://www.dmr.nd.gov/oilgas/docketindex.asp
A Division Order is a document prepared after a well begins to produce. Usually a Division Order Title Opinion is rendered by an attorney. This sets forth the “division” of ownership of oil and gas proceeds. Who owns what percent. Then the company that disburses funds prepares the actual Division Order. Actually a separate Division Order is prepared for each owner. Each owner is sent one and asked to review the percent of their ownership and if they agree, to sign and return the document. Once you sign your division order and it is received by the disbursing party, you will get your fist payment.
I believe to get the interest, you can request straight to the oil company to pay you it, otherwise you can contact the nd oil commission and talk with them…i have never gone through that process but i am curious, so keep me in posted on receiving interest
phil
Phil-
The oil company is Brigham and I spoke to the state of ND and they said that they are required by law to pay 18%- however I don’t know the process if it comes after payment or not but will keep you posted. Also, I looked at the dockets and do you just have to go through every one or can you do a search?
Thanks-
Lou
Philip Mollner said:
Lou,
A division order title opinion is normally done after the well starts to produce. As far as the time limit, I was talking around and found out that it depends on the oil company…some oil companies are really backlogged so they almost will certainly be late in there distribution of checks. I dont know who the operator of your well is but depending on who, it can give a good idea of how long it will take. Another way to check is to look at ND hearing dockets…usually there are two hearings for a well, 1 before drilling and 1 after…when the second hearing comes up, it normally take 2-3 months after to collect a check…the hearing dockets can be found at:
https://www.dmr.nd.gov/oilgas/docketindex.aspA Division Order is a document prepared after a well begins to produce. Usually a Division Order Title Opinion is rendered by an attorney. This sets forth the “division” of ownership of oil and gas proceeds. Who owns what percent. Then the company that disburses funds prepares the actual Division Order. Actually a separate Division Order is prepared for each owner. Each owner is sent one and asked to review the percent of their ownership and if they agree, to sign and return the document. Once you sign your division order and it is received by the disbursing party, you will get your fist payment.
I believe to get the interest, you can request straight to the oil company to pay you it, otherwise you can contact the nd oil commission and talk with them…i have never gone through that process but i am curious, so keep me in posted on receiving interest
phil
I should of added that a hearing is not necessarily required if the well is already inside the limits of an oil field. If it is not, then they need a hearing to extend the limits of an oil field to cover that well. I found that the best way to find it is to do an automated search for “brigham” on each individual docket then page through the results to find the one that pertains to you. Start with the newest and work your ways backward. If you can’t find yours after the day the spudded the well, then it will be longer. As for the interest, I hear that the operator will often times include it on the check as a separate item; however, they might write a check for the interest until the second check. From what I hear, if they do not give any interest, it is best to call them and inquire about it and often times it can be resolved. Bear in mind however that the interest is only on the balance that is more than 150 days, not everything. I have not heard about how long it take for brigham to send out their checks
I looked at the ND Website and found that the last docket date was 7/28/10- so it is probably just that they are back logged-
Thank you for your insight,
Lou
Lou Wheeler said:
Phil-
The oil company is Brigham and I spoke to the state of ND and they said that they are required by law to pay 18%- however I don’t know the process if it comes after payment or not but will keep you posted. Also, I looked at the dockets and do you just have to go through every one or can you do a search?
Thanks-
Lou
Philip Mollner said:
Lou,
A division order title opinion is normally done after the well starts to produce. As far as the time limit, I was talking around and found out that it depends on the oil company…some oil companies are really backlogged so they almost will certainly be late in there distribution of checks. I dont know who the operator of your well is but depending on who, it can give a good idea of how long it will take. Another way to check is to look at ND hearing dockets…usually there are two hearings for a well, 1 before drilling and 1 after…when the second hearing comes up, it normally take 2-3 months after to collect a check…the hearing dockets can be found at:
https://www.dmr.nd.gov/oilgas/docketindex.aspA Division Order is a document prepared after a well begins to produce. Usually a Division Order Title Opinion is rendered by an attorney. This sets forth the “division” of ownership of oil and gas proceeds. Who owns what percent. Then the company that disburses funds prepares the actual Division Order. Actually a separate Division Order is prepared for each owner. Each owner is sent one and asked to review the percent of their ownership and if they agree, to sign and return the document. Once you sign your division order and it is received by the disbursing party, you will get your fist payment.
I believe to get the interest, you can request straight to the oil company to pay you it, otherwise you can contact the nd oil commission and talk with them…i have never gone through that process but i am curious, so keep me in posted on receiving interest
phil
It will probably be pretty soon (hopefully). I know EOG was operating on closer to a 9 month time span from completion to first check. However, good things take time and like they always say, “oil is well that ends (in an oil) well.”
Phil
Lou,
I found some interesting information on that well. It shows the production data for the first 3 months…70000+ barrels in 90 days!!
http://groups.google.com/group/bakken-shale-discussion/browse_thread/thread/41e08b197787a875/1c5d7a3854f367bc?lnk=gst&q=ROSS-ALGER+6-7++1-H#1c5d7a3854f367bc
Since the well is off confidentiality status there is some interesting information. Even though the drilling pad is on your section, judging by the name of the well and the map on the ND Oil and Gas website, I dont know if your interest is pooled into that well. Since the name of the well is the ross-alger 6-7 1-H, that refers to the well is for section 6 and 7 (of 155-92). However, I did see that a permit has been pulled to include your section by brigham.
Also, it might be easier if we just emailed back and forth…if you want, my email is philmollner@msn.com
Hey Lou, did you ever receive your division order from Brigham?
No- I never have. Do you have a well do you understand how it works??
Victoria Reed said:
Hey Lou, did you ever receive your division order from Brigham?
Yes, we have a well that started producing in June. I am rather lost with how it all works. I was told by Brigham that we would get the division order but haven’t gotten anything as of yet.
You can call Brigham ask for their Royalty Dept and they will let you know the ETA on your letter.
Victoria Reed said:
Yes, we have a well that started producing in June. I am rather lost with how it all works. I was told by Brigham that we would get the division order but haven’t gotten anything as of yet.
Thank you Lou! What little research I have done, I think we are on a similar time line. Were you able to get in touch with anyone in the royalty dept. for your estimated time for your letter? I have a hard time getting in touch with anyone.
The Michael-Owan 26-35 1-H well was completed on July 16th and I haven’t received a division order as yet from Brigham Exploration. I guess these guys are just over loaded and running behind. In another week, it will be 5 months. Has anyone else with mineral rights in this spacing unit received a division as yet?
Your best bet is to call Brigham’s Division Order office and inquire about it. It is very common for the checks to be late past the 150 days in which you will recieve interest on any oil and gas that was sold and is over 150 days