Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on June 16, 2015 at 4:49

Lobby your local state legislators for a revision in the state's force pooling regulations.  Other than that you don't have any other options as far as I know. 

I understand your objections but I think MS mineral owners in the TMS areas may be receiving new offers at somewhat less lease terms as the operators are struggling to make the economics work.  If projections of crude prices for the next few years are accurate operators may be looking for a way to generate enough profit to drill all the lease capture wells required to HBP the bulk of the lands under lease.  Those will be expensive wells even in a period of reduced costs for field services and materials.  Some operators who have emphasized their least expensive wells may have created unrealistic expectations for their average well costs.  That number is a good deal higher than the wells mentioned in corporate presentations.

Permalink Reply by Recordman on June 17, 2015 at 4:17

Thanks Skip. A letter or phone call to my legislator is definitely needed. It's just ridiculous that these companies only need to have one third of the minerals leased in these huge, almost 2000 acre units before they can force pool the other two thirds! Something needs to change!

Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on June 17, 2015 at 4:25

You're welcome, R.  I encourage mineral owners to be active in letting elected officials know where problems exist.  An email or phone call is the simple way to do that.  However, considering the political clout of the industry, the best means IMO is to gather some like minded mineral owners/lessors and fund a coordinated lobbying campaign.  Although the public records in Amite and Wilkinson are a mess for title work, they do have the pertinent information on the current lessors that can be used to build a database.  A majority of those citizens acting in concert might identify legislators willing to sponsor bills to modernize the mineral code and address the plight of mineral owners.