We have been approached by EOG to purchase our 10 acres for the land only. The mineral rights would remain with us. Does anyone know what the going rate is for acreage in La Salle County and if that is a good idea to sell? Would it affect the value of the mineral rights? We are currently pooled but the lease is due to expire in September 2015.
Hi, Geri -
Any Real Estate Appraisal Company should be able to help you determine the value of the surface rights to your land. It would be wise of you to have an appraisal prepared anyway.
I got 327,000 hits in under a second when I Googled “Real Estate Appraisers LaSalle County, Texas”.
Ownership of the surface would not, from my experience, affect the value of the mineral rights at all. The only thing EOG might insist upon is your giving up the right of ingress and egress so they can control the usage of the surface.
Hope this helps -
Charles Emery Tooke III Certified Professional Landman Fort Worth, Texas
You indicate that you are pooled - is acreage held by existing production?
Thanks for the info. We are in California, which discloses sales of real property. Texas is a non-disclosure state. We will contact a realtor or an appraiser. EOG has not yet started production.
Jim Seymour
Rock Man said:
You indicate that you are pooled - is acreage held by existing production?
I you can find similar pieces of property nearby, you might be able to get some idea as to current prices by what is reflected in the Deeds of Trust on those lands.
An Appraisal would still be my best suggestion. EOG may want to have their own prepared as well.
If those Appraisals turn out to be too far apart, get EOG to agree to having your Appraiser and their Appraiser pick a third Appraiser, one from another County and that neither of them do business with and go with that one.
My Daddy taught me that. He practiced law for over 55 years.
Hope this helps -
Charles
Do you have any idea what EOG wants to do with this property? Create a storage yard? Disposal site? Put a facility on the property? All the above?
Does EOG have production surrounding your area?
James Seymour said:
Thanks for the info. We are in Calif. which discloses sales of real property. Texas is a non-disclosure state. We will contact a realtor or an appraiser. EOG has not yet started production.
Jim Seymour
Rock Man said:
You indicate that you are pooled - is acreage held by existing production?
If you will post your legal description, I can look up what’s going on in your area for you on DrillingInfo.
Hi Charles,
Could you please explain what you mean by “giving up the right of ingress and egress.” Does such a sale of surface rights affect the right of the lease holders to come and go as needed for maintenance or expansion of existing production facilities?
Charles Emery Tooke III said:
Hi, Geri -
Any Real Estate Appraisal Company should be able to help you determine the value of the surface rights to your land. It would be wise of you to have an appraisal prepared anyway.
I got 327,000 hits in under a second when I Googled “Real Estate Appraisers LaSalle County, Texas”.
Ownership of the surface would not, from my experience, affect the value of the mineral rights at all. The only thing EOG might insist upon is your giving up the right of ingress and egress so they can control the usage of the surface.
Hope this helps -
Charles Emery Tooke III Certified Professional Landman Fort Worth, Texas
Hi, Marc -
I am not an attorney, and I am certain you could ask one or even just Google the phrase and find a more eloquent definition, but to my understanding it is the right to come and go from the property, or to “enter and take away.”
Most mineral reservations retain those rights, but in some instances the party acquiring the surface rights (in this case EOG) might not want another oil company building a pad site or roadway across their planned facility.
That does not stop people from developing their Mineral Rights, it just stops them from disturbing the surface in doing so.
In many instances, residential real estate developers will attempt to have the holders of the rights of ingress and egress quitclaim or otherwise relinquish those rights to them to protect their planned development from drilling rigs popping up in people’s backyards or pipelines being built across their front yards.
I had a Real Estate Closing Company contact me a number of years ago, saying that their underwriter was insisting that they discover who all owned the rights to ingress and egress on every piece of land they handled the title research and closing on and asked how would they have to go about that.
Seems people were suing the underwriter for damages from when an oil company built a pipeline through their backyards. Suing the underwriter even though the oil company had already paid them damages and restored the land to its original condition after constructing the pipeline - even down to re-sodding the land.
I wrote a very polite letter back to them explaining that they would have to determine the complete current mineral ownership (including executive rights if severed from the mineral ownership), which might require studying the title to the land back to at least 1895 (in Texas), then running each of those mineral owners forward to the present day, then contact each of those parties and attempt to get them to quitclaim or otherwise relinquish their rights.
I then gave them a brief summary of what that might cost, per tract of land, and suggested that their underwriter would more than likely drop the entire matter immediately upon receipt of the first invoice.
I never heard anything more about the matter.
I would not think that the relinquishment of the rights of ingress and egress would affect any pre-existing agreements or contracts burdening the land.
Hope this helps -
Charles
EOG paid $500.00/acre in 2011 for a three year lease. They had to extend it for a year before it expired. The one year lease paid $1500.00/acre. Everyone in this “play” needs to BE AWARE of claim jumpers filing “adverse possession” on properties in the play. I have my royalties tied up in suspension at present due to other people filing on my holdings. They simply file an unwarranted deed in their name and then proceed to take possession. The “lease hounds” do not take consideration as to warranty or deed without warranty when they approach you for the lease. You now have multiple parties claiming a “right” to your property. The oil company just double leases the property to drill the location and leaves the “fallout” to be resolved by the claiming parties. Meanwhile your royalties are tied up until there is a legal resolution as to mineral ownership. Land owners should check with their county courthouse and see if there are any other filed claims made on your holdings. Beware you might not still own what your family has passed down for years. Find out now and not afterwards like I did. It will take a court action for resolution and more expense.
Hi all, we have 40 net acres in La Salle ABSTRACT 138 NAYLOR JONES UNIT.
EOG’s landman a week ago made us (the family) an offer of $2,500 per acre to buy the surface rights only.
I laughed at him and we said no way, and a week later he called back and left a message on the phone to please call him. EOG has sweetened the offer. I have not called him back yet and don’t plan to.
He did say something about pipe storage on the land. Who knows if that’s the truth or not. I, for one, don’t believe anything they tell me because I have seen them (oil companies) screw over many people on this blog site in the past.
Thank God for these sites. My two cents is hire a TEXAS OIL ATTORNEY.
It cost us $2,500 or so and we made 10 times that back on the first round of bonus money at signing with EOG back in 2010/11 and again after the first 3 years for the two-year renewal. We ended up getting $1,500 per acre 25% Royalty. The best we could do on our own was $500 per acre and 20% Royalty. BEST MONEY WE EVER SPENT was on the oil attorney in Texas.
I would say if you have 3 to 5 acres or more, hire a TEXAS OIL ATTORNEY. If you have a smaller amount, follow the blogs for your area and ask for the same as others in your area. You will probably get it, but you have to be area specific to get a good idea of the value in your mineral rights. As to surface rights, well, that I think is a bit more complicated because you don’t know what they want to do with it and they are NOT going to tell you the whole truth about it.
That’s my two cents anyway. Don’t be penny wise and dollar dumb.
Now my advice is for people like me who really have no idea what’s going on in the oil industry and have no experience in these matters.
Did I mention hire a TEXAS OIL ATTORNEY LOL.
Good luck to you all, thank God and your forefathers for this gift.
Hi all, I’m back with a question of my own. If the oil companies want to run a pipeline across your land for transporting or a storage tank on your land for holding oil, what’s the typical option? I’m sure outright sale of surface is the first, but how about a lease? A pay-as-you-go based on quantity of oil flowing through the pipe and/or through the tanks?
If it comes to this, you know what I’ll do: re-hire my TEXAS OIL ATTORNEY LOL.
Just trying to do a little preliminary homework first and have as many tools in my toolbox when I call her.
Thanks all.
Your property sounds like mine in the Jones Naylor subdivision. If so, you might make sure you do not have someone who has filed adverse possession on yours as they did on mine. You are in Calif. and I am in OK, so neither of us are locals. A little diligence now may save you some future problems. I sold my surface only to a man in San Antonio for $1000.00/acre, but the going rate was $2000.00/2500.00/acre in 2008. I was gullible and did not know what the future in the area was going to amount to. So make the most of it, you hold all the cards now.