Thanks, Mike. I have a mineral lease signed, bonus paid, but it called for seismic survey agreement to be negotiated later - which is right now. I want to see what they find under my surface, will sign confidentiality agreement to run with lease. Our lessee has gone in partnership with larger outfit, operator and they are bucking at sharing data, even though lease calls for logs, well data, to be shared upon commencement of, and throughout, drilling. Think I can make them share?
Mike Igau said:
Typically seismic survey results are highly proprietary for the Operator who contracted for this data with a seismic company. They spend of good chunk of money for this service and they also don’t want competitors to get hold of this data. While I have granted a permit with a seismic company, being unleased on some marginal properties, it is recommended to have a mineral lease in place with an Operator prior to approving a seismic permit. The rational for this is that you don’t want an Operator to be able to “peek” at your mineral property without a mineral lease and bonus payment being negotiated first. Otherwise, if the Operator does not see enough potential for drilling then they may not lease and the mineral owner loses out on the bonus payment.