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Permalink Reply by full name 2 hours ago

I had the same problem several years ago.  The property was located on the edge of the section.  My lease said that the entire tract was leased but when Petrohawk set up the unitized section they left out a small sliver at the edge of the section.  Chesapeake picked it up in their unitized section.  Chesapeake claimed it was not under lease.  The area was small so I worked on it myself (no lawyer).  It took a few years but Chesapeake finally realized their mistake and helped me to get BP (bought from Petrohawk) to recognize their error.  BP now pays me based on my lease with them.

Take a close look at your lease and look at both surveys to see if something like this happened to you.

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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant 1 hour ago

The so called "Mother Hubbard" clause that is included in many standard form leases covers any owned mineral rights that are not covered in the legal description included in the lease but are located within the section leased.  Since you were not aware of any acreage not covered by your lease, you would have received no notice until an alternate unit well recovered its cost to drill and complete and then began to pay you your proportional share of unit production - less Lease Operating Expenses (LOE).  Have you tried to get a copy of the unit survey from SONRIS?  If not, use this link and make a copy.  Links do not last indefinitely.

https://sonlite.dnr.state.la.us/dnrservices/redirectUrl.jsp?dDocnam...

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