An oil company may have approached you, saying it “desires to drill oil and gas wells” on your property. It might even provide a “platt” of your property and offer you $10,000 or more. But is the oil company really asking to drill oil and gas wells that would explore YOUR oil and gas and pay you royalties? Maybe not.

If the “platt” or paperwork provided does not inidcate the actual direction of the well, you don’t know for sure whether it will be a well that pays you royalties. Don’t be fooled by the money offered for the drilling of the well. That may only be to settle surface damage caused by building a huge pad site on your property. But if the well doesn’t drill into your mineral rights, you may never see another dime. If you take the money and sign the paperwork, that pad site might be there for a hundred years while it produces oil and gas for others.

Does the oil company even have the right to drill someone else’s well on your property? It depends on your oil and gas lease, and whether there are other agreements or easements covering the land and other matters. If there is already an oil and gas lease, becareful about signing any new paperwork without consulting with an attorney.

Often, oil and gas leases will require oil companies to do things like clean up the property after a well is drilled, and other things that are beneficial to land owners. And oil and gas leases generally only give the leasor the right to explore mineral rights of theh property owners. But if you sign a new easement for a pad site, including provisions purporting to ‘supercede’ prior oral and written agreements, including those in the oil and gas lease, the oil company may later try to argue that it has the right to drill someone else’s well on your property, even though it may not have previously had the right under the oil and gas lease.

It is always best to have an attorney review anything that an oil company wants to you to sign. Contact Reams Law for assistance.

Reams Law
(405) 285-6878
(800) 593-1974
contactus@reamslawfirm.com

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