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Permalink Reply by john goodday on August 18, 2009 at 1:50

Dion -

My apoligies - sorry for the comments!!

I never should have been so sharp, however, my frustration is getting the best of me. I feel as though my minerals are being hijacked and thrown into the Ozark Highlands Unit -182,000 AC. where they will be hopelessly HBP with the most minimum (wells) effort to do so. Private landowners will never be able to re-negotiate their leases or receive rental/option payments.

Permalink Reply by Dion Warr, CPL on August 18, 2009 at 3:09

John G:

No worries. If I would have asked for the app number upfront it would had saved a whole lot of confusion.

Don't get discouraged, and keep following the developments. You still have to be placed in a PA secured by production to have your lease held by production. The feds will require specific performance for that to happen, else they will be ensure that the appropriate amount of THEIR acreage be dropped. You'll want to contact BLM - Eastern States in Jackson from time to time to find out the status of their acreage in your area to track their movements. Unlike private lands, all the federal paperwork has to be filed with them in Jackson, MS or Springfield, VA (county courthouses are not considered the appropriate filing venue for federal lands), so you can't rely solely on county clerk searches as to the BLM lands.

As an (non-O&G production) aside, look at it this way: you don't keep lands next to or within a national forest to have it 'landscaped' with O&G wells and rig pads. BLM and USFS will require surface and environmental impact procedures that the operator must follow if they plan to operate there. Even if the operator wants to venture onto private land which may affect the national forest, they'll still have to do so. The operator cannot steamroll or stonewall the BLM. Even though the federal unit rules might seem a little odd, having the government as your neighbor does have some advantages.

Good luck to you.

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