We have a lease that is about five years old.  There are seven producing gas wells within our pool.  Now the oil company has hired a Land Man to come and see us.  They want us to give them permission to drill another well deeper to see if they could hit oil.  In this new well they want to turn the pipe and run about 5,000 sideways.   There is a clause in our lease that states that if they drill for oil they have to stay within an 80 acre area.  With this new well they also want to join two pools together and have them split whatever comes out in a ratio as to what percent the well is within that pool.   I was thinking that they were going to give us some kind of signing bonus to allow them to amend the lease.  That is not the case.  They are very hot to get this project going it seems.  They had the Land Man drive about five hours one-way to come and talk with us about this.  Funny thing is we had eight people to meet with him and he only brought two sets of paper work for us to look at.   You would have thought that if he had half of the people there that needed to sign he would have had the papers with him. 

Has anybody had this type of request from an oil company? 

Did they pay you a bonus to amend the lease?   

Anybody else have any thoughts as to if we should sign this amended lease or not?

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The question you need to ask yourself is much do you want oil that pays 30 to 1 vs. NG.  Devon was very hot for the TMS and now they are leaving, so don't assume that if you play hardball that the oil company will give in, more oil plays are being "discovered" everyday in the US and companies have more options for their drilling $$$.  I am assuming you are happy with the majority of the terms on your current lease.

Forget the signing bonus!! You want the well to be drilled!

 

Damon is correct, in my opinion, you want the oil; therefore, you want a new well.  I believe the days of not having a lateral are more than likely over, so, at some point you might as well go-for-it.  One point that was made above is extremely important to me.  These guys may want to drill to a deeper strata and that's what I believe you really want; however, since that lease has been in effect for 5 years, I would bet that you or at least you and your neighbors together have gotten a little smarter.  Sooo--, if there is anything you want or need to change in your lease, this is the time to work on that.  If your deep rights get returned to you at the closing date of the lease and these guys want to drill, I would suspect there are others that are waiting for the opportunity.    Lots of opportunity for decisions here.

Good Luck!

How many acres of mineral interests do you own in the section they are proposing to drill?

350

A thought....  If there are any terms in your lease contract that you would like changed, maybe this is the opportunity.  In exchange for any cash up front, maybe you can get unfavorable lease terms made favorable.

Thia appears to involve a "cross unit lateral".  You need an experienced O&G attorney.

Companies typically do not pay a bonus in this situations. The bonus is for tying up your minerals for a number of years with no promise of a well. In this case the land is already under lease and producing and an additional well is planned to be drilled on which you will receive royalties. If you refuse you are only hurting yourself by losing out on the potential royalty payments. What I suggest is that you hire an oil & gas attorney to review everything, one who is experience with the particulars of a cross unit lateral and that you require, in writing, that the company pay your attorney's costs.

Robertson County   

 

Encana

It may have to do with your present lease.  Sometimes the original lease only specifies a limited depth.  We had one that was limited to 16,000 feet.  We know under us is the Tucaloosa Trend.  A year later they came back with an new lease and specified depths and royalties for same, that is different rates for different depths.  So review your old lease and see what it says. 

 

 

 

It is becoming common practice in the Marcellus shale area to ask for bonus money, or even to be offered the money and maybe an increase in royalty %, when asked to increase the unit size. Of course you want the oil royalty, but so does the company. I agree that it is also a good time to see if there is anything in your lease you want amended. You can always ask, and they can refuse. If they want your oil they'll give you something in return for the amended lease. If you know of a good attorney in your area, now is the time to have this amendment reviewed. At least that is what I would do.

The oil company I am leased to called this a production share agreement (PSA)  It changed the unit from 640 acres to 1500 acres..Everybody signed the agreements over two years ago and no drilling so far.

I am content with that...don't really want the NG produced at less then $3  ...

One of these days there will be NG vehicles running the roads and I will be driving one.

Does anyone know where on the Gulf Coast Vicon is building the LNG refinery?  And will Itochu be shipping/selling product from the leases they own stake in?

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