I don’t see anybody talking about production fraud, it does happen I’ve learned. I’m still in discovery and I think there’s more to it than meets the eye.
I found a form at the COGCC website titled PAYMENT OF PROCEEDS RECONCILIATION PAYOR CONTACT FORM, a form 37 I like to call it. I mailed two of these forms to our Operator one for each of the two wells these guys operate (the Operator has three wells only in Colorado). The response to the form 37 was what I expected from them but more.
I mailed these forms to the operator (Big Run Production Company) because their price per MCF was below market value and two dollars less per MCF than the two other operators that also have wells in the same section that I receive monthly checks from.
I just wanted proof of the price of each sale. That should have been an easy question to answer, just mail me copies of their check statements from the gas gather.
Big Run Production Company’s response I’ve attached copies, the Argenta Fee 17 well I own no interest in. Check it out!! All the reported production to COGCC has been divided up between three wells. Plus the Gross value and Net value all handwritten in and a big fat zero in the price column. They sent three consecutive operating months. I only posted one month, but it’s the same thing on the other two statements.
I’m not the land owner, but a family member (a cousin) owns the property.
I emailed copies of these check statements to BP America (Oildex) and they tell me the statements are only for the one well (the one I have nothing to do with) and they tell me this is the only well Big Run Production Company has that BP gathers the gas from.
I emailed Mr. Neal Ray (President of the Colorado chapter of NARO) and asked him for help. Mr. Ray informed me that Colorado state law says only one well per statement unless the well in question is part of a Federal Exploratory unit. These consist of hundreds of wells not just three wells.
I’m thinking that whoever owns the other well the one the check statements are for is getting ripped off too so I checked out La Plata County Colorado GIS map page and find the property owner of the well dude only owns like 80 acres of the 320 acre unit spacing. I find his phone number and called him and it was one of the most difficult conversations ever!! Dude didn’t think there was anything wrong with having two extra wells getting paid out of his well? Dude tells me in his eighty acres that he has three stockholders as partners (more family members I expect). The Red Willow Compressor station has 80 acres in the 320 acres unit they don’t have any minerals that I could see. The rest of the unit spacing is owned by EYEHEART PROPERTIES LLC. When I clicked on the link for these guys to read the information Internet Explorer could not open the webpage.
I called the Operator Big Run Production Company and asked for the real check statements the ones from El Paso Gas Company. They responded with that’s going to take a real long time.
I think not because I’m going to hire an attorney and send COGCC a hearing request real soon.
I’ve still a lot more to add to this like what to watch out for that could tip a person off to theft of your minerals. You can’t count on the Commission least not the Colorado one. There is no oil and gas police you got to do all yourself.
