Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by intrepid on February 1, 2009 at 15:22

Good question. Someone else will be along soon, hopefully, to shed more light on this good topic. But, as far as I can tell 5 months could 'possibly' be long enough to get a well going if they really get busy. Have you had any activity or contact since posting the original question?

Permalink Reply by ogmladvisor on February 13, 2009 at 12:09

Yes, it is something that can be done 1 - 2 weeks prior to drilling. That is assuming all other work has been done, and all that is left to do is negotiating with surface owner and building the location.

Most modern E&P companies tend to be quite fair with surface owners, as they have come to realize life in general will be better for them in an area if they are...bad press travels quite fast in rural areas. However, don't forget that 95% of oil and gas leases give the Lessee reasonable rights to the surface of the land in order to produce the minerals.

So let's say company A shows up on surface owner Brown's doorstep a few weeks before they want to spud a well. Assume all of the minerals underneath Brown's tract are under lease, and all contain standard surface use language. Brown might or might not own an interest in the minerals, but for our purposes that doesn't matter, he has signed a lease if he does own anything. Time is short for the company, they only have a couple of weeks to spud based on lease expiration, and they can only drill from Brown's tract.

Can Brown stop them from building an access road, building a well pad, drilling and completing a well and building a pipeline?