Kyle, Thanks, may have to do that. Will let you know.
Cline Tracy, one thing to ask: the assessorâs office should have a file with information about the person listed as the owner, the one who is sent the tax bill. This information should go back to the source of the listing with that name. If yours is listed as âSo and So heirsâ it might be several generations back, but there should be some info they could give you. At least that is how it works in Ritchie. If you can get that, it is a place to start. I have had to do a lot of this with my own inheritance, and would be glad to help you sort it out. Maybe some others can learn from us. I am not an attorney, but my sister is one, and she helped me.
At the worst, you donât need to pay taxes if you donât own the property. At the best, youâll find you really do own the rights, and the company can start negotiating with you. There is a lot going on in Tyler.
Nancy
Hello. I have mineral rights to 83 acres in Tyler county. Have received small checks for years. Was recently contacted by a gentleman from noble company for lease contract to do some fracking. Since I am new at this I do not know where to start. Do not want to be taken advantage of. Do not know what to look for or include in the contract or what to have taken out. Also was told by D.A.C. Who had shallow rights that when I singed there contract I did not specify that I did not want to retain deep well rights so they went around me and sold them. Probably for lots of money, of which I got none. So why is The noble company contacting me if I have no rights to anything deep. I am confused. Any help would greatly be appreciated. Thank youâŚScottâŚ
Thanks Nancy for the info⌠I am curious to see if anyone knows how active they are in Deep wells in Tyler county right now? Are they just getting started, wide open, or sporadic? Next question is when you sign a lease agreement are you giving them rights for a particular number of wells and particular location or are you giving them the right to the whole tract of landâŚletâs say 80 acres⌠? Or is that specified in the contract? ThanksâŚScottâŚ
Scott Seckman, probably your lease with the shallow rights company either does not allow pooling or has a pool size smaller than Noble needs to do their well drilling, usually 1280 acres. Please read what they sent you.
Often the lessor (you) can either improve lease terms or get at least some bonus money (or both) in exchange for signing the modification to allow for the larger pooling size. Always a good idea to speak with an attorney before signing things with these companies.
My family has used Kyle Nuttall who is a member of this forum. He lives and works near Tyler county and is very knowledgeable about what is going on in the area, what companies will likely pay or allow as changes, etc. He is reasonable as well. I am sure there are other good attorneys but I know Kyle is good.
Your acreage is fairly large which should give you some bargaining power. And if they drill, the royalty should be good. Most of Tyler county is in what they think is a good location for the âwet gasâ which is worth more than the regular âdry gasâ.
Good luck and read as much as you can.
Hi Scott, to find the deep wells in Tyler (I think âdeepâ as defined in the WV Code is deeper than the Marcellus so if you mean ânot shallowâ âŚ)
you can go here
and choose Tyler for the county. I just choose 1/01/2012 through 01/10/2014 as the permit dates. Make sure that on the right side you have the boxes checked for Horizontal wells and Laterals
You will find a lot of blue dots. When you zoom in you see red starry things. Those are wells. The orange lines are the laterals. Often several laterals per well site (each lateral is a separate well but there is one well pad for that type of thing).
I think there are more in Doddridge and maybe up in the panhandle than Tyler but Tyler is picking up speed I think.
When you sign a lease you lease the amount of land agreed to. You might not want all your land leased for example. So if you have 80 acres all in one place, you might want to lease all 80. The lease should describe it clearly. Then you might or might not want to lease all the layers. There are several different geological layers including the Marcellus which has been in the news the most. Of course you already are leased so you are bound by what was signed already. Unless of course Noble wants your property enough to modify something in your lease.
It is always best to have an attorney look over things, as I wrote before, but there is a lot the mineral owner can learn to make it easier talking with the attorney.
Even if you donât own the surface rights, there is a lot of information on the website of the West Virginia Surface Owners Organization
Have fun reading. The more you know the better youâll do.
Thanks NancyâŚI did go on the site you mentioned. I found my 2 shallow wells also which are active. Several red spots around the property I have mineral rights for and even some horizontal drilling as well. ( Gold streaked lines). My question is now how to find out what success they are having around my wells? ( if possible?) are they mainly seeking Gas, Oil or both? Also would be interested to know if anyone has been dealing with Noble Energy or know anything about them? They are supposed to be sending us a lease for deep wells. Should we be negotiating a sign on amount and if so what is a fair estimate? Or no sign on amount and just be concerned with royalty percentage? Thanks ScottâŚ
Ok, when you go to that website with the wells, when you choose a well (hover the mouse over it) it should show production if any has been recorded. The operators are required to submit production from one year by the following year end of March, then they (Office of Oil and Gas) have until August that year to get those numbers on the website. For example, for production up through December 2013 they have to submit it by March 31 2014. Some other states are much more up to date. You probably can find production numbers for your shallow wells.
As I understand it, most of what they expect to find in Tyler county with this current drilling is âwet gasâ, that is, natural gas (methane) with other things like ethane. Those things are currently more valuable than the methane so the companies want to drill in those areas. Most of Tyler county is thought to be in this area (I think) with only maybe the western most part in more of the dry gas area. I have read this on this and similar sites. Keep reading and youâll probably find some information about it. Even with mostly gas wells there is often oil along with it especially in the first year or two. At least that is what i understand. I donât know a lot about Tyler.
Good luck. The more you know the better youâll do.
About Noble, I have interest in a lease in northern Ritchie county leased to CNX/Consol (they bought it from earlier leasing companies). CNX and Noble have an agreement to drill some wells in the area including our property. We were first approached to modify our lease, with some good incentives including $ per acre and the chance to modify the lease but later they decided not to. I think I understand the technical reasons they decided that we didnât need to have our lease modified for what they wanted to do. We (my sister and I) are going to have our acreage included in 5 or 6 legs of wells, in 2 different production units. So far the farthest this has gone is that they have permits for those wells and others in the production units, the latest activity being Oct. 31 2013. Now it is wait and see.
I havenât heard anything bad about Noble. Once again let me recommend having an attorney review anything you sign with a company. Sometimes they add things that you donât want added.
Great information Nancy. I will go back and recheck the wells around mine in relation to production. I will also be getting with an attorney ( a knowledgeable one) to look at contract before I make a decision. One additional question. I donât see it as an issue but since I only own the mineral rights and not surface property, what would happen if the property owner would not agree to deep well or horizontal drilling or access? ThanksâŚScottâŚ
I think the mineral rights owner has precedence over surface rights owner and the surface owner cannot block reasonable access to the minerals or something like that. However, since the horizantal wells go down (vertical) then curve and go out (horizontal) they can go under the land and be no where near the surface so a lot of leases are for no surface use but give the company permission to go under somebodyâs land and get the gas or oil way down there. If a wellpad is on your property I think the surface owner has to agree on that and you donât have any say on it. Could be wrong. Anyway I donât think it will be a problem. Less disturbance to the land than a vertical well UNLESS the wellpad is there, then it takes several acres. That is my understanding.
One more place to get information:
if you go here
http://www.dep.wv.gov/oil-and-gas/GI/Pages/WeeklyReports.aspx
for the Weekly Reports, it is permits, plugging records, well records, etc. The Permits list is arranged by county, since May last year. You can go look at what they have for Tyler to get some ideas.
All West Virginia mineral owners should go to this site and contact the legislature members concerning the two HB bills listed and tell them NO
There is about to be drilling on the property adjacent to mine. They are asking for a non drilling survey of my property. I feel I should be ready for a leasing proposal. Where do I start? What is a good lease?
May want start a new thread since this one is old. More talk going on over on the Doddridge mineral site. Join over there and get in on the discussions.
Bill, sounds like they want a free look around to see what it would cost for easements.
Can anyone recommend a survey company in Tyler county. I need to get accurate boundry lines for my property in Tyler county.
Just had a call from Anteroâs Texas office about a âpooling agreementâ I live in Alma and was wondering if anyone else is getting this call?
Hi Bill, do you know if your acreage has a well on it and are you getting royalty checks? Antero has agreements with some companies to drill horizontal wells, and the older leases donât allow the pooling needed for those wells. Antero wants people to sign a modification to the original lease to allow for pooling. I have a similar situation.
Nancy, there is a small Pexco well where we get our gas. I guess itâs time to dig up the old contract. What exactly are they trying to do and whatâs in it for me? Or against me?..
Bill, yes for sure get out your old lease and read it. Probably it does not say anything about pooling. They probably want you to agree for your acreage (or part of it) to be placed in a pool up to whatever number of acres (probably 1280) so they can drill horizontal legs of wells. These legs are long and take up a lot of room, almost always more acreage than most people own. If you are put in a pool and they drill a well and it is a good one, I have heard that they (when new) produce several hundred dollars a month per acre. That is GOOD. However you might only have 1 acre in the unit, and this good number drops off soon so maybe you are getting $100 an acre, then $50 etc. Still better than nothing. Of course they stand to make a lot of money also, after they pay off the costs to drill.
Anyway often they can be persuaded to give you a few hundred on up to sign the modification.
Read the document carefully when you get it, after you have read your lease. If you have questions, you can ask them here and probably somebody can help. And I have learned the hard way that it is always best to have an attorney review anything you sign unless you are really really good at reading contracts. One thing to look for is language where they want you to allow them to pool your acreage with other lands whether contiguous or noncontiguous. That ânoncontiguousâ part could be a problem since it is hard to see how they could drill through acreage that is noncontiguous.
Bill, the best way to get more money from them is to be patient. Say no to their first offer. Antero will offer either nothing or $500. It seems to depend on the project manager. You can get them up to add high as $4,000 in my experience, and Iâve heard of people who have regular dealings with them getting hundreds per acre. This is a good opportunity to get a No Warranty of Title clause and an Indemnification clause. If there are storage rights in the original lease, you can get those written out now, too. Negotiate for anything else thatâs important to you. Good luck!