Top Leasing - Anderson County

I was looking through the latest lease filings at the County Clerk's office today, and I came across the first instance of top leasing that I have seen since I began reviewing these documents.

Graem top-leased 1,500 acres in the Neches area on top of an existing Key Exploration lease that was signed in November, 2009.

Lots of new leases have been filed in the last few weeks...

Do you have a contact # for Graem? I have googled them and unable to find any info on them.

Graem Resources, LLC

P.O. Box 131113

Tyler, TX 75713

When doing some research on Graem Resources, LLC it looks like they are a brokerage firm. Can anybody confirm this?

They are not a brokerage firm. Graem is an LLC set up strictly for leasing purposes.

I am a hesitant to do business with them because I am unable to find much info on them.

There really is no "them". It's a dummy company set up strictly for leasing purposes in order to hide the identity of the investor or E&P company that is behind the leasing activity. In the case of Graem, at least in Anderson County, they are leasing on behalf of EOG.

No reason not do business with them. In fact, you should be very happy to do a lease with EOG, as they have a great reputation for identifying good opportunities and maximizing recovery.

Thanks for the info! Appreciate you passing on your knowledge!

You're welcome, Pat! Glad I could help!

Hi Alan can you confirm that Graem is EOG or give any insight on how you found out? It would shed some real light on the big picture activity out here - many thanks!

I first learned that Graem was representing EOG through a word processing error. I was reviewing filed lease memos at the County Clerk's office in mid-March, and I found a lease memo that was exactly like the Graem lease memo except it listed EOG Resources instead of Graem Resources as the lessee.

Since that time, I have confirmed the identity with other mineral owners in Anderson County. In addition, Saline Creek LLC, another leasing entity, recently filed a document in Anderson County in which they assigned their Anderson County leases to EOG.

So I think it's very clear that EOG will be drilling in Anderson County in the not-to-distant future.

Thanks Alan that is exciting stuff and great info. Much appreciated!

Ok I've been looking through leases and memos filed and it looks like Texline Pipeline is the entity being used by Jamex to buy leases in Anderson - can anyone confirm this? Secondly, if I had to guess I'd say that Leasehold Interests LLC is another dummy company for EOG but I can't confirm - anyone have any info on this ?

Yes, Texline is leasing on behalf of Jamex, although there may be other E&P companies involved as well. During 2013, Jamex has only permitted 21 wells in Texas, and all of them are traditional vertical wells. Texline has leased a lot of acreage in Anderson County (34 different surveys), and the project seems to be bigger than what Jamex would be doing on its own. In addition, I have been told that this is a horizontal drilling project, and Jamex has done very little of that, as far as I know.

I don't believe Leasehold Interests is leasing for EOG, although they are leasing in similar areas. They have done lots of leases in northern Anderson County (24 surveys), and they have done additional leasing in Smith and Cherokee Counties (as has EOG).

However, a few weeks ago, Leasehold assigned all its existing Anderson County leases to Joe Kast, who is a geologist and oil industry consultant based in Dallas. The filed document made reference to a "Sand Trap Project Purchase and Consulting Agreement" that was signed in July 2011. So it appears that Mr. Kast determined there was a significant opportunity here and has put together a package of leases. What I don't know at this point is if he has E&P companies lined up to do the work or if he is currently in the process of finding them.

Texline and Leasehold have both been leasing in northern Anderson County in the same general area, along with a third entity, Sulphur River Exploration, Inc. I don't know if there is any connection among these three leasing entities.

Very interesting stuff thanks Alan

Very interesting stuff indeed! My wife and I leased our 95.1 acres SW of Brushy Creek to Leasehold Interests LLC back in April. Printed on our lease was "Sand Trap Area 4-2" and our property apparently is one of the tracts assigned to Joe Kast mentioned above. Knowing Leasehold Interests was a dummy company, I had held back on leasing until I was told the name of the operating company behind Leasehold since I wanted to know who I might have to contact and deal with if some of their people were to come on our property doing seismic or some such. Under condition I not disclose the name, the landman I was dealing with, Greg White of RWT Land Services, provided the name of the operating company and it was not Joe Kast, EOG or any of the other companies I have seen mentioned on the Anderson County forum. All I can say is that it was a company I had not previously heard of but that does actually exist.

Wandering around the Eagle Ford Forum today, I came across an interesting thread about Anderson Co. activity initiated by Alan, possibly a different Alan than Alan Herrington. Link to that thread:

http://eaglefordforum.com/forum/topics/signed-my-first-lease-today

I hear Leasehold Interests is the front for Jamex

Has anybody heard anything about Walter Oil and Gas and what they're doing in the area - I heard they have filed a handful of leases around Tennessee Colony - Also still can't get any info on who Leasehold Interests might be - Maybe it's Walter, but either way they sure are filing a lot of leases

Also Sulphur River Exploration is an operator out of Houston and their position is adjacent to and east of a big chunk of Texline's position. To revisit earlier conversations, I believe Texline is the dummy name for Jamex, which is an operator in the area.

I believe that the owner of the company doing the lease work for Texline/Jamex may have sold his operation to Walter Oil and Gas Corporation (Houston-based company). so some of the recent Texline leases are using the Walter name.

Texline, Leasehold Interests, and Sulphur River have all been leasing in the same general area, following a northeast to southwest trend starting in the northeastern corner of the county and continuing down to the west of Palestine.