Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by A.C.123 on June 18, 2010 at 9:54

Maybe an individual's right to privacy is a reason you can't get the information??

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Permalink Reply by Dion Warr, CPL on June 18, 2010 at 10:02

Julia:

Your first sentence is left to very broad interpretation (since many indidivuals have been 'affected' by the HS play that don't have a direct tie to drilling and development (e.g., own property subject to E&P or mineral rights under lease, the ownership of which could be obtained by research at the assessor's office(s) or courthouse records).

As far as well names, many wells are named after the mineral owner, which is not necessarily the surface owner. Also, if memory serves, the well name is limited to 41 characters (or real close to this), so if multiple owners own the property, chances are that the well name will only contain one individual's name (or entity), and other owners are simply denoted as "et al."

Well information can be obtained by the public free of charge by accessing the DNR website (www.sonris.com). Sonris Lite (the HTML version) can be used to look up wells by Parish, by Section, Township and Range, or by serial number. A lot of common well information can be obtained fairly easily by the use of this service. Should you need greater detail (such as well location plats, etc.), use the "Document Images" section. The site used to require some downloads, but some of the information is now obtained by use of PDF images which do not require the installation of the Panagon Viewer application. Document Images has a learning curve, and even industry people must learn how to look up information even if they know exactly what they are looking for.

However, surface and mineral owner information is found in the official records of each Parish, and Sonris is not a substitute for this. Property records in LA are indexed by party (vendor / vendee, mortgagor / mortgagee, grantor / grantee) and not by land description, so be prepared to run names, and track property descriptions to find out who owns what (unlike the abstract plants in TX, which allows you to access ownership properties as located within surveys on a set fee schedule). This research is what landmen and mineral and real estate abstractors do everyday, and get paid for. That said, there are usually a few deputy clerks and/or abstractors in any given courthouse who will genuinely try to help you if you're in a pinch, but don't count on them to work with you for more than a couple of minutes of showing you the ropes, doing the work for you, or answering a quick question; they do have a job to do. Also, don't count on professionals giving you access to their information - as stated above, these folks have clients who pay well for good research, and they pay to keep the fruits of that research confidential.

You don't necessarily have to pay to view courthouse records (unless you subscribe to the computer records), as the information is available for public viewing. Do be prepared to spend your time and gasoline to get to the courthouse and research to obtain ownership information, however, and virtually any piece of paper that you want to take with you will cost you a copy fee, bare minimum.

Production information is also available online with several pay services, but these services are generally contracted by those 'in the business', and generally the subscription cost is enough to dissuade infrequent or casual use.

Good luck to you.

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Permalink Reply by Chris on June 20, 2010 at 13:36

Well name is 31 characters (includes spaces, commas, etc). They are not only named after the mineral owner. I work on most of EOG proposed locations and they are all named after the surface owner (landowner). Guess it depends which company your dealing with.

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Permalink Reply by Dion Warr, CPL on June 22, 2010 at 8:54

Whoops... 31 characters, not 41. Sorry for the mixup.

Chris: as a general rule, does your client change the name of the well if they find that the directional survey places the bottomhole underneath the lands of another property owner, or do they just leave it as they originally named it? Or is it just the owner of the surface location that matters? Just curious...

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Permalink Reply by The_Baron on June 22, 2010 at 10:09

Interesting, While I can not speak for Texas, LA is very clear as to the naming of a well

1. In no case shall any operator name or well name exceed 30 characters. A space is equivalent to one character.
a. Abbreviations shall be used whenever possible to comply with the above. It is recommended that "S" be used for sand and "U" for unit.
b. The official well name appearing on Form MD-10-R (Application to Drill) shall be used when reporting on all Office of Conservation forms and also in any correspondence.
2. Lease Wells. All wells drilled on a lease basis shall bear the lessor's surname and initials or given name
3. The commissioner shall prescribe or cause to have prescribed the procedure for assigning well and/or nomenclature and shall issue a memorandum concerning same from time to time as the need arises.
a. Developmental units proposed at a hearing shall be named in accordance with the latest memorandum, and the well number shall depend on whether or not there are any other wells in existence on the lease.
b. Any unit maps filed with an application for hearing must reflect proposed unit names in accordance with the latest memorandum.
4. Units with Alternate Unit Wells. For those cases where more than one well serves the same proration unit, the wells shall be named in accordance with the latest memorandum, and the well number shall be followed by the letters ALT in the case of each alternate well.

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Permalink Reply by The_Baron on June 22, 2010 at 10:14

By the way Dion, seems we have a similar pet peeve for the uses of affect vs. effect.

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Permalink Reply by Dion Warr, CPL on June 22, 2010 at 16:03

Baron:

lol. I also try to spell properly as much as possible. Unfortunately, hunting and pecking sometimes gets me in trouble as the thoughts outpace the regular four to six fingers and two thumbs I generally use. I try to check comments over before I post them, but I am just too lazy to copy them into MS Word and proof it, then repost in the reply box. After the 15 minutes, it's cast in stone.

I wonder if Keith can add a spellcheck button the reply window...

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Permalink Reply by essay on June 22, 2010 at 16:09

i use firefox, has a built-in spellchecker, i just take it for granted at this point.

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Permalink Reply by Mac Davis on June 23, 2010 at 2:02

Agree on using Firefox. It's a lot more secure than Internet Exploder as well. Throw in the "NoScript" addon and you get a lot more protection from viruses/malware and annoyances.

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Permalink Reply by P.G. on June 23, 2010 at 3:00

Be nice if some webmasters would check their sites for compatibility with firefox. Some websites don't display very well in firefox which is the only drawback I found using it..
Microsoft isn't the only game in town..

Permalink Reply by The_Baron on June 23, 2010 at 3:14

Personally, I believe there is a huge difference between casual spelling errors and errors in grammar.

I too tend to get in a hurry and make the more than occasional spelling error....

By the Way, Essay, Mac and PG, I hate firefox... no, I despise it. Anyway, My Google toolbar will spellcheck for me in IE, I just tend to not use it.

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Permalink Reply by P.G. on June 23, 2010 at 12:53

If you don't use Windows OS, you can't use IE

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