Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by jffree1 on December 2, 2010 at 19:04

Keith, my condolences. Is the lease still running? If it still has some time to run on the primary term, you should notify Samson of your father's passing and give them your contact information so they can find you if they need to (like if they drill a well).

If you have a 1/4 royalty, you are in good shape. 1/4 is 25% so you don't want 1/5 which is 20%.

There is nothing going on in your survey right now. There has been a lot of vertical drilling across the county line to your west, though, so maybe they will take a look at some point. It is always money well spent to have an attorney look over contracts before you sign one. These are binding documents that you may have to live with for a long time so you want to make sure you get professional advice concerning the protections landowners need in a good lease.

If the pipeline didn't cross your boundary, there is nothing to do. If they want to put a new one across your land, then you would negotiate a right of way contract. You need a good lawyer for that, too.

There is lots of good information posted in numerous discussions on this site so just do a search for the topic you are interested in and you will probably get more stuff to read than you can tackle in several months. Just dive in and try to learn all you can so you will be somewhat prepared the next time someone offers you a lease. And don't be shy about asking questions. The only dumb one is the one you don't ask.

Permalink Reply by Keith Baldwin on December 4, 2010 at 18:26

Yes I notified Samson, and duh to my 1/4 1/5 thing, its the other way around I wrote that wrong. It's set signed for 1/5th should I press for 1/4. Still would like to know what company is more likely to drill in my area, if I should stay with Samson. Also being that they put a pipeline on my fence line what is to stop them from drilling on my fence line? Especially if it is a diagonal drill? Can another company just steal my gas/oil that way?

Permalink Reply by jffree1 on December 5, 2010 at 4:52

If it was signed at 1/5, it's a done deal. They would have to NEED something from you, that is not covered by the lease, to have any sort of leverage to negotiate up on that lease. If you are lucky, the term will expire and you can negotiate a new lease later.

A pipeline ROW is a completely separate contract and does not give them any rights to drill or otherwise develop minerals (in or under) that ROW unless it is built into the ROW language. I think that would be very unusual but that is why you need to have a lawyer review contracts before signing.

Railroad Commission of Texas regulates all oil and gas wells in the state. For a directional or horizontal bore hole, a directional survey is done to locate the exact location of the end of the hole, called the bottom hole location. The operator has to file a plat of the proposed well location and a P-12 form which shows all the tracts which will be/have been pooled for that well. If the bottom hole location ends up off-lease it is an illegal location.

I am not a lawyer (IANAL) so someone with some actual experience with or knowledge of this type of situation would be able to tell you a lot more about what happens whenever an operator drills off-lease. But there are remedies... they could lease you and pay you royalties, the same as all other owners included in the lease unit, or they could plug the bottom of the well back to a point inside their lease (a legal location) and produce the well. Regardless of which they choose to do, RRC will require them to remedy the situation.

Permalink Reply by Keith Baldwin on December 4, 2010 at 18:29

Oh and to be clear I did talk to Samson and they just transferred everything into mine and my sisters name, including our children, but still under our control until our kids are 18