Good Morning:
I'm new here and this is my first post. I am a fiction writer doing some research, and I have some very basic general questions. I have read the articles posted on this website and a lot of the posts, but my questions are very general. I know how these things work in Canada (and I worked in O&G for many years), but I'm not familiar with how this works in the US and/or how it may differ.
1. So, if a person owns the mineral rights, when a company wants to drill on your land, it negotiates with you a contract to pay you a certain amount (a royalty) on production, is that right? Are these contracts long-term? like for the life of the well or just for X amount of years?
2. And a separate agreement is negotiated to pay for a surface lease? Are these contracts long-term as well? Do you have a separate short or long term road use agreement or is that a one time payment if they want to build a road?
3. If the company is not paying the correct amount, for whatever reason, is there a statute of limitations on how far back you can collect the amount owed?
I'm specifically interested in how these things apply in Colorado and Wyoming, but I assume that the basic rules apply in every state--correct me if I'm wrong.
Thank you very much in advance for any and all replies.