Just for grins, I went back 20 years in Stephens County. Thirty-five leases, only one lease was drilled. It looks like another will be drilled in the next few months, and there are a few with a couple of years left in them.
That is a LOT of money in lease bonuses to pass up waiting on a pooling order that may never come.
(There were a few other locations where we did wait on a pooling order to make an election.)
Over the past 13 years, I have had offers to lease by 3rd Parties. I do review them carefully and usually respond as a courtesy. When I outline my reason[s] for not accepting the lease, as written, I have yet to hear a counter offer. If I receive a real offer or counter offer, I will take it seriously. Otherwise, these offers are filed in my file cabinet as archives. It has been my experience that the proceeds offered in bonuses and lease for the net acreage would barely pay my recording fees. I have leases operating in 4 counties and 4 operators presently: Bravo Arkoma, Charter Oak, Continental and CVR. I have 9 more Simple Probates to complete and file in the same number of counties. I will be receiving offers on those fairly soon, considering the ongoing leasing in those counties/ sections. Maybe I will get lucky and see a serious lease offer.
Rick, I did a similar look back 30 years when I acquired minerals from family and took over leasing. I had several properties that went through 8 leasing cycles from $125 bonus at 5/32 to $5,500 bonus at 22%. A couple properties leased for a total of $8,000+ bonus in just last 3 leasing cycles. Most have been drilled in last 6 months so happy with my tough Exhibit A negotiated with non-ops.
This supports your point that lots of money can be lost waiting for Pooling.
My son recently received an offer to buy his leased minerals (3/16ths) in Section 4, Township 1N-Range 5W at $7000 per acre. Can someone please shed some light on what is going on in that section or what the going rate should be for an interest like this? We live out of state. Thank you.
Kevin,
Generally, unsolicited offers are quite low to actual value. There is quite a bit of horizontal drilling in the area. He is probably in an older unit that may be appearing to be dying. Several operators in the area are coming into the units like this and drilling the shales. Some of my best properties are in areas like that. We are in section 3 next to him and are not going to sell.
Thanks so much for the info M Barnes. Do you happen to know the typical size of the units if they are drilling the shales? It would also be helpful to know the kind of production that comes from this formation and what production levels would be considered a good well. Thanks once again.
Does anyone know anything about a class action suit against Continental for wrongfully charging for expenses? All my contracts specifically prohibit that, and everything was fine at first, on the wells in Section 20, 2N-4-W. I had been checking carefully for months, then got careless, and finally discovered I was being charged expenses on subsequent wells. When I phoned Continental I got a letter from someone accounting saying they canât talk about it because of âa proposed class action legal proceeding pending in District Court of Blaine County.â It was filed by Billy J. Strack and others. Iâm wondering if Iâve missed discussion of this on the forum, since I havenât been reading as regularly as in the past. And incidentally, Al Crabtree who ran Mineral Owners Support Group in Duncan, died recently. He was the nice man who reviewed all my contracts, and always included an Exhibit A disallowing expenses. I donât have any more minerals to lease now, but wonder if I need a lawyer for the class action suit.
P.S. Didnât copy read. Of course I mean âpendingâ in district court.
Kathlyn, the case was settled just a few days ago, as a Continental royalty owner I believe you are automatically a member of the class. Details of the settlement are sketchy right now but around $60 million will be distributed. It will take most of the year to get it all sorted out. Brief article: http://www.4-traders.com/CONTINENTAL-RESOURCES-IN-50470/news/CONTINENTAL-RESOURCES-INC-NYSE-CLR-Files-An-8-K-Other-Events-26019778/
Amazing. Thanks, Michael.
Thanks for the information, Michael.
There are other lawsuits involving operators charging for excessive deductions. I do not trust the operators.
Kathlyn,
I have some details on the CLR settlement that I received from people very close to the case. Contact me and I can share the info with you.
I have mixed emotions about the CR settlement since they have one of our wells and I also own some of their stock on the market. Robbing from Peter to pay Paul as they say. lol
Gary.. would also like to know your info. Sent you a friend request⌠thought you were already on my friends list but when I tried to message you it said I had to be a friend so I guess I wasnât already.
On the Grady County forum this week there was a map someone posted supposed to show the leases filed in 2017 for the entire state, by township. It shows there were over 50 leases filed for Stephens 1N 6W, which seems like a lot given so little talk of leasing that area this forum. Iâve probably seen this over the years, but someone please tell me how to look up leases filed, by township, or county. Our family has open interests in Sections 4 and 5 1N 6W, and 33 2N 6W. Thanks, as always, for all the help from those of you in the know. Mark D
Linda, the settlement might affect the stock price short term but if oil prices stay up I donât think $60 mil is going to hurt their bottom line that much.
I am sure Mike is right about CLR stock and settlement. It is common practice that companies accrue moneys for such a lawsuit in their financials and I expect they already took that settlement into last yearâs numbers.
You guys are probably right. Sixty Mil. wonât go very far with the many mineral owners they have either.
60 mil will get each one of us 2 all beef patties, cheese, lettuce, pickles on a sesame seed bun; hold the fries. Drinks are on you.