Wirt County, WV Oil & Gas Discussion archives

Wirt County, WV oil & gas discussion group. Share your experience regarding lease bonus, royalty rates, drilling activity, and oil & gas news.

I've had a couple people call me asking for help with leases in Wirt County recently. Anybody have landmen approaching them about leasing?

We belong to a group that has about 240,000 acres in several counties. We are going to be entertaining offers soon. No one has approached us individually.

Well, that's a good chunk of property. I can't imagine it will be hard to find someone interested in that.

Hi - My sister and I have a few acres of mineral rights in Wirt Co. that we were recently informed about by an offer to lease from a gas company. We live on the west coast so the mineral rights came as a surprise. Finding out we have relatives was an even better surprise.

The lease offer was laughable. I say this with all seriousness and we aren't even knowledgeable in the mineral rights leasing arena. However we do know the lease was a joke and the relatives involved were not interested and let it fall by the wayside. Off and on over the last couple years I have been trying to rally people and learn more, but don't have any contact info for some of the relatives.

A little background: We are doing our own homework with other relatives (who we have never met and have only recently learned about). Seems there are between 7 - 13 people in the pool, depending on recent deaths of other mineral owners. I think they were up there in age and the rights could have passed to someone else. Without going to the assessors office or court house for records, it is very difficult to get information being so geographically distant. I am thinking about a little trip out there just to check it out. We don't have a lot of acreage (124 acres) and sharing rights with 7 or maybe 15 people sounds very watered down.

I did read about this giant co-op that was assembled, but we cannot find any information about it. It appears as if the other poster, Marianne Siers, is in the group. We cannot locate much information via the web.

So.... what is going on in Wirt County? What do you know?

Caesaree--I Live in Wirt County. The large group of mineral owners of whom I am a member has already been closed. I will help you in any way I can. I'm not sure if you know anything about Wirt county, but it is small with a small rural population. Historically, people who live in this area do not get very high offers for mineral rights. Hopefully that's about to change. Last year we received a letter offering $600/acre. That sounded like a lot compared to the $10/acre we received the last time we leased. At that time the going rate was $5/acre. People used to sign away their lifetime rights for free gas or just used to give them away. I know it doesn't sound like much with so many people sharing the rights, but it just depends on who you lease with and if they drill on you (which would be more $$$). Let me know if I can help you. The assessor is a good friend, and I know everyone who works in the courthouse. Just remember, the wheels turn pretty slow around here! The expense of a trip here might be unfruitful and frustrating. If you can find all the people who own the minerals on the property, that would be a start. If you can't, I might be able to give you a few hours of looking up stuff in the courthouse. Good luck!

Marianne Siers, did anything ever come of that landowner group you belong to?

Hello group members:

I live in Maine and have a scattering of O & G interests in Wirt and Wood Counties.

I have 2 questions that I could use some help with. The first is, Am I obligated to sign an INDEMNIFYING DIVISION ORDER? The second is, Does anyone know of a second group that is under consideration, given that the initial group is closed? I guess I have a third question. Is one of the primary purposes of a mineral owner's group to have more clout in negotiating lease payment amounts and sharing the cost of any legal/landman expenses? Thanks very much for any light you can shed. I made a trip to WV decades ago to familiarize my self with the situation but a lot has changed since then.

I am a mineral and surface co-owner in Wirt County Wv. I would like to know if there is any drilling in that area. I now live in Indiana and have heard that they may be interest in that area of WV.

Sorry I haven't posted in so long, but nothing is happening in Wirt County except they are building a large pipeline that is going through the edge of the county. No drilling that I know of. Our O & G group hasn't met for a long time, because the bottom fell out with Obama. Hoping that things will pick up. We haven't even been approached for leasing. If the group we belong to reforms, I will post. Chris Wright---can't answer your questions.