AboutJames H. McConnell, CPL Expertise READ CAREFULLY BEFORE ASKING ME A QUESTION
I will try to answer questions about oil & gas leases, minerals, royalties, and servitudes, if the questioner has provided a good description of the lands. I require a section, township and range for any land not it Texas. I require a survey name and an abstract number if the lands are in Texas. I will answer questions about offers to lease or purchase mineral interests only if all terms of the offer are in the question, including the term, the royalty and the amount offered. Failure to provide this information will result in the question being rejected.
I have answered more than 2300 questions on this site and get as many as fifty in one day. I do not have the time nor am I inclined to deal with detailed questions requiring an attorney. I am not a substitute for an attorney. If you do not write in a cognizant form, I will reject your question. If you have done real research and have a question I find interesting, I will answer it. If you haven't done any research on your own, I will not do it for you.
If you do not rate the first answer, do not send a follow up, because I will reject it. If my time means so little to you that you feel that you cannot take your time to rate an answer, I do not have time to answer another question.
Experience I have been a Professional Landman for more than thirty five years. I have drilled and operated oil & gas wells in Louisiana and Texas and an familiar with the rules and Regulations of the Texas Railroad Commission and the Louisiana Department of Conservation. I have testified in court as an expert witness.
Expert: James H. McConnell, CPL Date: 6/17/2008 Subject: Selling mineral interest in Hughes Co., OK
Question My mother, Wanda Hendrix owns 4 mineral acres in Hughes County Oklahoma in Section 4 Township 4N Range 10E. That section was recently pooled but my mother did not receive her bonus check because Devon said "she is already leased". She last received a few dollars payment on this supposed lease about 20 years ago. Now she wants to sell it outright because of the confusion (she has no copy of any supposed lease). She has received offers to buy her interest for as much as $2666.00 per acre and I am trying now to get her $4000.00 which seems possible. My question is about past money she should have received and why she is excluded from the current pooling order. How can they tie up her property for 20 years with no money?
One offer mentioned a 1/8 lease as opposed to the 3/16 offered in the pooling order so they reduced the offer from $4000.00 to $2666.00. But others tell me there is no lease on record. I don't want to sell this before I am reasonably sure that there is not money somewhere that she is entitled to. I have heard that there are two wells that have been producing since 1987 and subject to a 1987 pooling order affecting 160 acres that she may have been a part of.
Answer Hire an attorney and put Devon or whoever the present record owner of that Lease happens to be and demand them to release the lease. If there is existing production, you own a portion of the working interest of that or those wells. It might get sticky because they forced pooled her into a unit and the well never reached payout in 20 years. You have a good case either way. Corporations are arrogant when they are in the wrong.
