I asked the landman who he was working for and was told that the company wanted to remain anonymous. He said, he was a independent landman working for them and he didn't even know who the company was. He said, he was told if asked to say they are in the top 5 oil company's and are the top 3 drilling company's.
Anyone know why they wouldn't want people to know who they are?
Hi Lacy,
In answer to your question, some of the oil companies have gotten such a bad reputation for the underhanded way they do business, they are having a hard time leasing the way they once did. Chesapeake is one of them. Personally, I wouldn't lease to anyone without knowing who the lease will eventually wind up with. It always looks shady when people are hiding things, and you're right to ask questions.
Where are your minerals located? I do know two people I would literally trust with my life. One is in ND and the other in Tx. One is a mineral manager and the one in ND is a landman. Do you have anyone you can trust with your minerals? If not message me through my profile. I can help. I wish you the best of luck with your endeavor.
Yours,
Wes Luke
Often a company will not disclose their interest in an area in hopes that the competition wont know who is buying and for what reason. For example, if the buyer were Chesapeake, that information alone would attract competitors hoping to establish a position and either sell it to Chesapeake later at a profit or someone else. Competition drives up the price of leases. If the company is an unknown, others are less likely to compete. That being said, I wouldn't lease my property unless I knew who the lessee was.
Ed
Anyone can say anything, but you don’t have to deal with them on that basis. I would want to know who I am dealing with also. You have every right to tell the landman that the lessee needs to reveal themselves, or they need to stop wasting your time. I would at least get their offer though, so you can truthfully say you have another offer when someone else seeks to lease your minerals or you begin to actively market them yourself. The lessee has the right to be anonymous, you have the right to know and you have the right to deal with whoever you want. As to why they would want to be anonymous? If they are a major player they might be trying to keep lease prices down. I have heard of lease flippers misrepresenting themselves to get someone to sign with them. Remember, if it’s not on record/paper, it didn’t happen. In any case always get certified funds before you let an executed lease out of your hands.
Wes and the group,
This was a great question and great answers. I have been leasing our family mineral rights for over 40 years in East Texas. You can go into any court house where there is an oil and gas play going on and see the landmen there. If you ask most all of them who they are working for they don't want to tell you most of the time. They think they are "secret agents" I guess LOL. Wes Luke's reply to this "hit the nail on the head". When a landman comes to me and wants to lease acreage, I ask them who they are leasing for and to reduce their offer to writing with their proposed addendum's, I have had them tell me they did not want to go to the trouble of putting it in writing unless I would agree to their terms! I had one of the major companies mentioned fail to pay me over $500,000 plus dollars of lease bonus here in Houston County in the fall of 2008. Everything was in writing and one of their lease brokers spent over a month supposedly abstracting the title from 1834 forward. It was completed and I was told on a Thursday afternoon that they would have me a cashiers check Monday or Tuesday of the coming week!
I still haven't been paid and I don't expect to.
This is off the subject somewhat but I was not the only one in the U.S. that it happened too. What it all boils down to is the lease agreement that you have with them. Most all lessee's assign all or a portion of their rights before a well is drilled. They borrow money to lease and borrow money for their operations. The more I learn about leasing and dealing with oil and gas the more I learn that I don't know. What I ask them now is "HOW and When you are going to pay me. They want to "lock you in on a lease" but want a way to back out of paying you!
There are mineral owners here in Houston County, Texas that have had minerals producing for over a year and never received their royalty payments. I ask the landmen when they try to get me to warrant the title, if they expect me to guarantee their work! You better know who you are dealing with and if they are going to pay! Your lease documents should be structured to be good no matter who winds up with it.
Wes Luke said:
Hi Lacy,
In answer to your question, some of the oil companies have gotten such a bad reputation for the underhanded way they do business, they are having a hard time leasing the way they once did. Chesapeake is one of them. Personally, I wouldn't lease to anyone without knowing who the lease will eventually wind up with. It always looks shady when people are hiding things, and you're right to ask questions.
Where are your minerals located? I do know two people I would literally trust with my life. One is in ND and the other in Tx. One is a mineral manager and the one in ND is a landman. Do you have anyone you can trust with your minerals? If not message me through my profile. I can help. I wish you the best of luck with your endeavor.
Yours,
Wes Luke
When a land agent contacts me for a mineral lease I will instruct him/her up front that one of our requirements is to know the identity of the Oil Company he/she represents. I understand that the entity they represent may want to remain anonymous when they are seeking to accumulate contiguous acreage and such. However, I as the mineral owner want to know the identity because there are oil companies that I may not want to deal with. For example, they could have a poor performance record, lack adequate financial resources, or have a bad reputation in dealing with mineral/royalty owners. Over the last 20 years of mineral leasing I have not had one leasing agreement turned down because of this issue.
Last year several family members received a call from a landman inquiring about leasing a certain tract of ours. Whenever I inquired about who they were representing, I got the “they want to remain anonymous” statement. I told the landman that we had to know who we would be leasing our minerals to and I haven’t heard from them since. I guess they were interested in remaining anonymous than leasing.
Mike Igau said:
When a land agent contacts me for a mineral lease I will instruct him/her up front that one of our requirements is to know the identity of the Oil Company he/she represents. I understand that the entity they represent may want to remain anonymous when they are seeking to accumulate contiguous acreage and such. However, I as the mineral owner want to know the identity because there are oil companies that I may not want to deal with. For example, they could have a poor performance record, lack adequate financial resources, or have a bad reputation in dealing with mineral/royalty owners. Over the last 20 years of mineral leasing I have not had one leasing agreement turned down because of this issue.
Hi Mike,
I think it has become more obvious to the crooked (And that's not to say they are all crooked) oil companies that the average mineral owner has resources they didn't have 10 or 20 years ago. This forum is a great example of that. I believe that causes the crooked ones to try to find ways to be anonymous because their reputation precedes them. Once ppl learn what they are up to they quit leasing to them. If enough ppl do that the oil company is out of business The American Way !!!!
Dealing in oil and gas leases for 40 plus year's I get taught a new lesson each time and every time. Nearly every single time in dealing with leasing minerals the problems always arise with the "middle men" (brokers & landmen).
One of the things I have learned in business is that "if you are having trouble dealing with someone right from the start it only get worse"! If you are having trouble getting the documents and bonus money, just think what is going to happen when and if they get production! Do you think it is going to get better and you will get your money easily?
We better have our leases done correctly from the start with good addendum's. I have learned to expect big problems when dealing with a certain big company!
I have not had any problems in this area and I’ve been leasing since 2004. Over the years, I have dealt with both landmen and directly with oil companies. In regards to the landmen, some refused to give the company they work for and things were ok. As I tell both landmen, brokers or oil companies, my main goal is to get my bonus money in my style and to get recieve the terms in the lease which I set. One problem I’ve never had and that is being “cold drafted”. I have check in hand before the other side has the tools to record a lease.
It might be nice to know who is leasing your mineral rights, but they can and do assign these leases to other companies.
You might lease your mineral rights to Company X, but the majority in the drilling unit leases to Chesapeake, and Chesapeake could very well end up being the operator of your property.
Many times an independent LLC that no one ever heard up ends up leasing a lot of acreage, and then they turn around and assign all these leases to Chesapeake somewhere down the road. This is one of their methods of keeping things quiet and not attracting attention.
So, despite your best intentions, unless you have a large mineral acreage, you are not in control of very much.
Mr. Anderson is correct that you never know who will end up with your lease and eventually drill. One factor that stands true is if an operator has your minerals leased and the expiration date is approaching, the operators will begin selling off to other operators if they are unable to drill the area.
For me personally, I believe it is a courtesy to the mineral owners to know who they are dealing with initially in any case. My ATTY insists on having the Operator Identified and named in the original mineral lease document. I concur with that advice and we advise the land agent of those requirements up front. If they won’t disclose who they represent then we don’t lease. Now we typically have acreage of 100 acres + but also we have leased acreage as little as 30 acres. Assignment of mineral lease. Not uncommon a situation and we have had that occur on one of our larger lease tracts. The initial Operator assigned 60% of their interests to another Operator. We inserted a provision on “Assignment” in our mineral lease agreement that stipulates that if the initial Operator assigns our mineral lease to another entity, in part or whole, they must send notice in writing to each mineral owner covered in the lease agreement. This way we know what is going on with our mineral property.
Thanks everyone for your insight and advice in this matter, I really do appreciate it !
I was told that the company that wants to lease is also going to be the ones drilling. Also, that they are wanting to lease up to a million acres. The mineral rights that I own are in Midland County Tx. Does anyone know who may be doing drilling in that area ?.. Also , how I may go about finding out what the signing bonus rates are going for there ?
To All I leased my Land, To Independant Land Person, Who said that they just wanted to Drill for Oil on my land , In Leon County Texas, They told me all sorts of Goodies lo and behold They said two weeks ago they were not interested any more YUK YUK so to all out there Beware Of The Bear, Now I see why with all the tech out there they can drill around land I am not saying so But DUHHH, I quess I fell off Turnip Truck, GOOD LUCK Phil
Did you ever get the signing bonus ?
Philip Hollman said:
To All I leased my Land, To Independant Land Person, Who said that they just wanted to Drill for Oil on my land , In Leon County Texas, They told me all sorts of Goodies lo and behold They said two weeks ago they were not interested any more YUK YUK so to all out there Beware Of The Bear, Now I see why with all the tech out there they can drill around land I am not saying so But DUHHH, I quess I fell off Turnip Truck, GOOD LUCK Phil
Yes I did maybe I am to impatient???Phil
r w kennedy said:
Did you ever get the signing bonus ?
Philip Hollman said:To All I leased my Land, To Independant Land Person, Who said that they just wanted to Drill for Oil on my land , In Leon County Texas, They told me all sorts of Goodies lo and behold They said two weeks ago they were not interested any more YUK YUK so to all out there Beware Of The Bear, Now I see why with all the tech out there they can drill around land I am not saying so But DUHHH, I quess I fell off Turnip Truck, GOOD LUCK Phil
Mr. Hollman, it sometimes takes years before they drill after you lease. Do you know if seismic has ever been done? I have friends who signed a 5 year lease and the seismic didn’t happen for 3 1/2 years. If your lease hasn’t expired someone may still drill. If your lease expires then you may have opportunity to lease again in the future. If your lease hasn’t expired, how long before it does expire ?
Philip Hollman said:
Yes I did maybe I am to impatient????????????????????????????????Phil
r w kennedy said:Did you ever get the signing bonus ?
Philip Hollman said:To All I leased my Land, To Independant Land Person, Who said that they just wanted to Drill for Oil on my land , In Leon County Texas, They told me all sorts of Goodies lo and behold They said two weeks ago they were not interested any more YUK YUK so to all out there Beware Of The Bear, Now I see why with all the tech out there they can drill around land I am not saying so But DUHHH, I quess I fell off Turnip Truck, GOOD LUCK Phil
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I'm beginning to think that some of these companies see this as a game. To see who can go in and steal a possible lease from another company. A friend of mine talk to a landman the other day about my situation and he seem to get really excited about it. He said he was interested in learning more and possiblely offer more on the signing bonus. He also told her that this is common practice for the company to want to remain anonymous. I just wish I had a way of finding out what the rates are going for in Midland County right now.
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Hi to all again I read some company has tech which they use from airplane to find OIL, No Joke I do research I am not in the Oil Biz, But I think us poor people are getting the Biz. Just look at cell phone Tech everything but beer dispensed, YUKYUK I will try to help all I can Take care fellow JR,SSSSSSS Phil