Ok, just wondering... If you own the surface rights and they need to drill for water to do the fracking, are you compensated? I know that some counties consider fracking as production others as exploration.... either way they need water.
The reason I ask is that my family owns 400 acres surface rights and 240 mineral rights in the same area.
Hi, David -
Yes, you would be compensated, but how and how much would depend upon the provision(s) regarding water usage in your lease, surface or otherwise.
Many people in your position add provisions to their leases to the effect that the company has to drill to a different water table than the one you currently use, pay you for the water they use and when they are through using it, leave you the water well Wellbore.
You will have to install your own surface equipment - their surface equipment is not suited for use by ordinary surface owners - but you get a free water well out of the deal. Maybe even a free road up to it.
Also, you may want to add a provision restricting them from using your water for wells on other lands or lands that you are not pooled with. Unless you want to be in the water selling business, that is.
I have seen leases in South and West Texas with more provisions regarding water usage than all the other provisions put together.
Hope this helps -
Charles Emery Tooke III
Certified Professional Landman
Fort Worth, Texas
Char
I hope this doesn't mean you just croaked!
If your minerals are undivided and leased, read the lease where it mentions the rights of the lessee to water, gas, access to minerals, access road to well heads, etc. If you have an old lease, the rights could be ambiguous as to water use. Try to get them cleaned up in a manner that suits you before drilling is permitted.
I you don't have a lease, you will soon. Yoakum is hot. I just sold some minerals for a client near a drilling horizontal well at a great price for my client. Any new lease should be made clear as to the owner's needs in the light of new drilling and permeability enhancement. The needs of each surface/mineral owner will be different. It is a whole new world.
Gary L Hutchinson
Minerals Managment.
Are you the surface rights owner or the mineral owner? Or both? Do you have a signed lease with the operator? If yes, what does your lease say about drilling for water?
Or is this operator asking for your water to fracture a neighboring well? You post reads unclear to me. Please be more specific. Regardless, DO NOT GIVE them your water regardless of what they need it for.
Thank you.
Pat
I am not a landman, just a surface and mineral rights owner of a number of properties. the advice you are getting here is right in line with my thinking. if you have a company that wants to drill for oil or gas, sign a lease for that purpose. No water wells, no roads or pipelines that cross your property, unless you are a beneficiary under the lease. I have had them try to put a road through my property to get to another lease, simply because it was a shorter route, but they wouldn't add me to the producing property as an override or carried interest, and so they had to go around. Similarly, they will want to use your caliche clay for roads, etc, but that is another commodity they need to pay for separately. As Gary said, it is a whole new world out there, and may will try to take advantage of you using the producers 88 forms or worse.
I don't know what a good rate for water wells would be, but with the extreme scarcity of water in West Texas, I never sign a lease with the provision that they can drill on my land for water. As