http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/HeadlineNews/NaturalGas/8969640/
The articles below are merely a sampling of some of the information you need to know to be a informed landowner. When negotiating an oil and gas lease, the oil company is not your friend, they are a tenacious competitor. If you are not armed with knowledge they will exploit you. Your lawyer is not your negotiator, you are. Your lawyer is merely someone who looks out for your legal rights, they are not skilled negotiators. Running to a lawyer every time you get a request to do a seismic survey, sell water, or receive a oil and gas lease offer will land you in the poor house. The oil company intentionally tries to make things complicated, they use bait and switch, delay, deception and many other tactics to get you to sign a lease that is favorable to them. They will try to wear you down. Get informed and be a educated lease negotiator. Quite simply put, you must know how the oil company operates and know yourself.
Lease bonuses and royalties are going up very fast since the enormous economic potential of the Eagle Ford is prominent public information for everyone to see now. The genie is out of the bottle. In a large part of the play the shale is 300' thick, up to three times what it is in other commercial areas of the Eagle Ford trend. The thick part of the Eagle Ford oil window holds enormous quantities of high value WTI (West Texas Intermediate light sweet) crude oil. The overpressure oil window of the DeWitt/Gonzales County corridor is the most highly sought acreage in the entire Eagle Ford trend.
Knowledge is power! Learn the value of your land and how much lease bonus the operator should be paying you. Don't accept anything less than 27 1/2% royalty. Know and understand how the surface of your land will be used. Be a good negotiator.
NEGOTIATING THE LEASE BONUS, ROYALTY, AND SURFACE USE AGREEMENT ARE YOUR RESPONSIBILITY!
EVERYTHING IS NEGOTIABLE. Let me repeat that, "EVERYTHING IS NEGOTIABLE."
CHECKLIST FOR NEGOTIATING AN OIL AND GAS LEASE
http://www.tlma.org/oilgasleasechecklist.pdf
MINERAL OWNERS CALL THE SHOT
http://www.tlma.org/oilplay.htm
PRIMER ON POOLING IN TEXAS
http://www.utcle.org/eLibrary/preview.php?asset_file_id=553
TEMPORARY FIELD
RULES FOR THE EAGLEVILLE (EAGLE FORD) FIELD
Minerals, Surface Rights, and Royalty Payments
http://recenter.tamu.edu/pdf/840.pdf
FAMOUS LANDMAN/OIL COMPANY QUOTES
"A fool and his land were lucky enough to get together in the first place."
"There's a sucker born every second"
FAMOUS LANDMAN/OIL COMPANY QUOTES
"A fool and his land were lucky enough to get together in the first place."
"There's a sucker born every second"
That's hilarious but sadly, it is oh so true. Operators run roughshod over landowners. The Eagle Ford is the only play where landowners have substantial leverage, yet they have for the most part rolled over.
ReplyDeleteGood stuff
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