Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by nat baggett on January 19, 2011 at 7:06

i had seizmic shot around and on my land   a few years back  ,  and wish i had not let them do it.  They set off a charge about 200 yards from my water well, and about a year later it sank down in the ground, i got a tractor to pull the black plastic out, and it was 'stuck' and pulled the cable in to. Lost a 8'000 dolllar well for that $25/acre shoot.   I only have 25 acres, if you have a small amount of land, they can go around you, no problem.  I advised Dad of that and they went around his 20 acres, no problem.  I wouldn't let them shoot a hole anywhere in the area of a water well.  Tried to call them from a number i had, it had been diconnected.  But,  a gas well was dug behind the house, and they dug a deep well for the gas well, and now they are done with the water, and I am useing tht well for my drinking water.  Be careful about letting them shoot any charges probably within 50 acres of your water well, not worth it.  Good luck!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Aubrey C. Sanders, Jr. on January 19, 2011 at 7:11

COULD BE TRUE IF YOU OWN 10,000 ACRES.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Aubrey C. Sanders, Jr. on January 19, 2011 at 7:11

COULD BE TRUE IF YOU OWN 10,000 ACRES.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Pauln on January 19, 2011 at 7:39

98% of what everyone said above is absolutely correct. May I add a few thoughts:

1) Take any monies offered and run.

2) Be very clear on what constitutes damages and how you want to be compensated for them.

3) There are industry standards for how close an energy source can be to pipelines, waterwells and such. Usually they are in the 200-300 foot. range. Anything can and will happen though.

4) Getting a seismic print of the seismic is worthless unless you just have a lot of curiosity or you are a large landowner. Remember the story of the elephant and the blind men? Depending on where they touched (leg,Tail, Side), they thought an elephant was many different things. Therefore, unless you have the whole picture, you don't know if you are in a good spot or not.

5) It's OK to say no to a survey, but if you're property is in the optimum place to drill, and they don't have data, they may choose to drill somewhere else and you would lose out on your royalties. (Unless of course they roll you into a unit). But still if you are in the unit, wouldn't you want them to pick the best place to drill?

Good luck.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ron Jon on January 19, 2011 at 7:54

It depends on what is going on in the big picture but I wouldn't permit seismic without a lease.  If you wanna shoot it, lease it.  Do you know if Devon has a leasehold in the general area?

How big is the property?  Sounds like the guy your dealing with is full of it.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ajo Hebert on January 19, 2011 at 11:06

 

 

You got a lot of good feedback here except for the guy that said you could request a print of the seismic. Bad info, can't happen, won't do you anygood.

 

 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Joe Aldridge on January 19, 2011 at 12:36

I beg to differ......... The seismic may show faulting that is associated with the geology under the property. That can mean a lot as far as whether the formation has "natural" fractures along and associated with the fault. I asked for and got a section from my property. It clearly shows the fault and the broken (fractured) formation all the way to 25,000 feet. The faulting in the area that I'm in is primarily due to "growth faulting". This type of faulting produces large "roll over ridges" adjacent to and that follow the regional faulting. The fracturing associated with the faulting can be as serve as creating a "gravel bed" along the fault in chalk and shale formations. This would definitely be good to know.

Some companies will not give the data but it does not hurt to ask.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by DJG on January 19, 2011 at 13:34

Actually, we were able to succesfully negotiate that access to the data within a 1 mile radius specific to our own land be included as part of the agreement for an upcoming seismic survey in Central/South Texas.    

 

One time viewing of our data at the seismic operators office.     Their engineers operate the equipment, but we are allowed to bring our own geologist/consultant along to the meeting so that we can have some independent assessment of what the data tells us about the prospects buried in our dirt.

 

Agreement was for $35/acre plus additional reimbursement for any itemized expenses deemed as "excessive damages".

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Joe Aldridge on January 19, 2011 at 13:50

Very good info. About the last paragraph........ The initial payment is for "liquidated damages" That's what my lawyer called it. As you state the permit should have a clause that provides a person with the ability to recoup additional damages if they occur. One crew damaged my gate and let my cows out on the hwy. Luckily, a neighbor got my cows back in and temp. fixed the gate. I was out of state at the time and its nice to have "GOOD" neighbors. Also, when they came back to do the East-West line they went around me. I don't think they wanted to deal with me after the problem we had with the cows and the gate. This was before 3-D seismic became popular.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Bet Crain on January 19, 2011 at 12:34

When I had them asking to do the seismic test on my land I checked out the company doing the test and I called the leasing company asking them about it.  The leasing company told me that they had to sign the same agreement that I did since they were the leasing company and that they were going to agree to it.  The company doing the test was a well known company and reputable.  The agreement was simple and asked for only permission to do the test.  I read about test on the internet to understand what they were going to do.  They did the test and later they did drill a well in our block.  You do not have to agree to the test.  If you are already leased it has nothing to do with your getting paid for the gas.  It may have to do with where they drill.   Bet Crain

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by benny688 on January 19, 2011 at 14:44

Well, this really seems strange to get an ultimatum from a seismic testing company, but the key to this like Aubrey says would be how many acres you actually hold.

 

If you own a hundred acres or so and don't want to allow the testing- this often occurs with people that own the surface but not the minerals-the normal way of doing this would be for the seismic company to simply work around you.

 

Most of the posts on this topic seem rational, but there are several weird ones.  Setting off explosions on your property?  The kind of seismic testing I've had just involves running cable out through the woods with tripods to hold the battery packs and recording devices.  There has been no noticable damage and is certainly less aggravating than having to have a physical resurvey to close a lease when the survey crews come out and start lopping tree branches and create a fire hazzard. Not so much damage as before GPS.

 

The other strange one about requiring a lease before you allow testing- this just isn't the way it works.  You allow the testing in hopes of getting a new lease.

 

GLTA

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Joe Aldridge on January 19, 2011 at 15:29

Hi benny, 

Just wanted to clarify something. First, you are correct about allowing the seismic shoot before the lease.

You are not correct about the explosions. One type of seismic involves setting charges. That's what the term "shoot" refers to. This can range anywhere from 3 to 20 lbs. of explosives and depending on the type of overburden the charges are usually placed anywhere from a hundred to two hundred feet deep. The drill crews generally want to get the charge into a sand layer. That's why the explosion can damage a water well. Also, if you are in an area where they get "surface roll" the explosion can not only do damage to wells but even pipelines if they are placed too close and the charge is heavy. The 3lb charges are usually used around homes and well sites, etc while the heavier charges are used where they would be clear of any possibility of damaging structural property. The lighter charge naturally does not provide the resolution that the heavier charge gives.

The other type of seismic is done with trucks that have vibrators on them. These trucks set up waves that travel through the earth and are reflected by the different strata.

I'm not sure which type of seismic is being used in the HA area. I Hope this helps. 

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next ›
• Page