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Permalink Reply by Andrew on May 7, 2013 at 17:21

The well Two Dogs was talking about was the T J WILBANKS (Serial #19184). Though it is still producing it is half a mile from David's tract and is a lease well.

Permalink Reply by Andrew on May 7, 2013 at 17:43

David,

The answer to your question is "not necessarily." Your area has some rather complicated mineral law issues involved, so I'll do my best to explain myself in English.

If the producing well is part of a Louisiana Conservation Unit, where multiple tracts are combined to form one common pool, unleased mineral owners inside that unit are entitled to 100% of their pro-rated share of production in the unit after the well pays out, as Skip previously said.

However, if the producing well was not a "unit well," meaning it was drilled on a single lease, the surrounding mineral owners would not share in any production whatsoever, even if the well is in the same section as their minerals. 

After looking at your section's history on sonris.com, I have a couple of observations:

1. There is a very real possibility that you do not own the mineral rights, especially if you recently acquired the property. It is complicated to fully explain, but given the extremely high density of wells in that area, and the fact that some have consistently produced since the 1930s, it is possible that someone else owns the mineral rights to your tract of land. Frankly, the only way to know for sure would be to have someone with experience research the Caddo Parish conveyance records starting at about 1900 until present day to find out. I'm not saying you definitely do or don't own the minerals, I'm just saying that your area has "old mineral rights" written all over it so you may want to keep that in mind (there may also be state-owned mineral rights at play in your section, which a challenge in and of themselves).

2. There is apparently no Louisiana Conservation Unit in your section, at least none that I'm aware of. (Skip or TDP, I don't know of any way to search for a unit declaration by section, and I'd love to learn that there is a way to do that.) Of the 25 wells permitted or drilled in your Section starting in April 1936 through present day, none of them were "unit wells" that were drilled in such a unit. There were two voluntary units formed somewhere in that section, but the only way you would be inside such a unit is if you or your predecesor in ownership was a party to the contract creating that unit. Regardless, the only well drilled under either voluntary unit stopped producing in 1989, so wouldn't be the well you're referring to.

THIS MEANS: It is possible, and I think likely, that you are not entitled to any payments from the two producing wells in your section. Even if you do own the mineral rights in your tract, those wells are apparently not a part of any unit, so there is no sharing or "pooling" of mineral rights among neighboring tracts.

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Permalink Reply by david kenneth merritt on May 8, 2013 at 0:46

WOW ,  THANKS FOR THE RESEARCH

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Permalink Reply by Andrew on May 8, 2013 at 2:04

Happy to help. Good luck to you.

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