All neighbors are pooled, CHK left us out!

Sorry if this gets too long... but we're really upset!  We own 10 acres in Fox Township in Carroll County, OH.  5 years ago we leased with CHK at $1500 per acre, can't remember the royalty percent.  The past couple of years, they drilled to our west (less then a half mile away) and didn't include us in the pool.  They have another pad planned for our neighbor to the north, and his land's lease got extended over the winter.  Our lease was up in February and when I called CHK because I hadn't seen any check or renewal, I find out they aren't extending our lease.  Some more digging, I find out the EVERY ONE of our neighbors, on ALL SIDES of us are currently collecting royalties from other CHK wells, including the guy to our north who will eventually get his own rig (they pooled that one last Fall and left us out, even though we were leased.)  We aren't included in any of them.  Since we are completely surrounded by CHK, and they are draining everything around us, it makes our small 10 acre plot of minerals worthless.  Do we have any recourse?  Should we talk to a lawyer?

I called CHK and they are going to send out a release of our minerals, which is nice, but I'm waiting for a call back from Brandon the landman, who I'm sure will have some excuse of why everyone else got in the pool except for us.  HELP everyone, what should we do?

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Permalink Reply by Tusc-county-man on June 23, 2016 at 6:16am

If what  you say is true......and all the parcels around you are in a unit......

I'd pull plat maps for all the wells to validate this.

If it turns out you are the "island" surrounded by defined units.....you are SOL, sorry.

Permalink Reply by Indiana Smith on June 23, 2016 at 6:37am

It could be worse.  CHK actually included us in a pool, but we haven't received a check since December 2015.  We received some royalties in 2014 and 2015, but then they "recalculated".  This "recalculation" states that we were overpaid and we won't receive any more until the negative balance is gone.

Back to your situation.  You can look at the ODNR map and see if there is a well bore within 500 feet of your property.  In order to pull ALL of the gas out from under the property, they need to have a bore every 1000' feet (500' on each side of the bore).  It is possible that there is room for one or more bores between your neighbors that would be directly under you.  Go to the ODNR well locator website and see where your property lies in relation to the current bores:     http://oilandgas.ohiodnr.gov/well-information/oil-gas-well-locator

Here is a map of some of Fox township.  As you can see, there is a lot of space between padsites.  There is one pad site toward the middle that has three wells going southeast from one pad.  The area between those three wells is totally being drained.  However, there is room for more wells between all the current pad sites.  If your property is those unproduced areas, then you are not being drained yet.

If you look at the top left corner of the image below, you will see six well bores (from two different pad sites) perfectly spaced to drain the entire area under them.  

0ym9x5ag7ury2Permalink Reply by 0ym9x5ag7ury2 on June 24, 2016 at 1:47pm

Indiana,

      Keep an eye out for Class Action Status for Hope Christian Fellowship vs Chesapeake Energy. We have a cure for this type of non payment of royalties.  Take a look by searching this website.

0ym9x5ag7ury2Permalink Reply by 0ym9x5ag7ury2 on June 27, 2016 at 1:55am

Indiana,

     The recalculation was Chesapeake realizing they could steal it all in Ohio so they changed some numbers in the Revenue Department and recalculated what they could take without you paying them, which is always hard to explain. This goes beyond the "Adjustment" the Revenue Department uses to explain how you won't be getting the 0 to 2% royalty that Chesapeake started out paying.

A friend of mine called Chesapeake and they said the "Buyer" over paid so we would have to give back some money. He then explained to them that he knew CEMI was the buyer, so Chesapeake over paid themselves but still wanted more.

With no O&G backed President in the White House (5 or more Chesapeake backed candidates failed)  there will be no Pardon for Doug when the Department Of Justice and Ohio use the RICO Statute on him.

Ask Chesapeake where the Total E&P Royalty Payment went. Probably into their king's (ceo) bank account. He needs it in order to make Forbes Top Ten Paid ceos in the US.

Permalink Reply by Undecided About Oil on December 18, 2017 at 3:41am

Any news?

Permalink Reply by David Allen Lilly on June 23, 2016 at 12:26pm

"I find out the EVERY ONE of our neighbors, on ALL SIDES of us are currently collecting royalties from other CHK wells"

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"They have another pad planned for our neighbor to the north, and his land's lease got extended over the winter"

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Both of these statements cannot be true, can they ? Where is your property specifically, so I can go to the maps and see what is happening ?

Permalink Reply by James on June 23, 2016 at 2:13pm

I'm just a novice researcher with a web connection- any help is appreciated!  Here you go everyone:

Our parcel is 120000250001 (10 acres Bigham/Williams on Norco Road)

To our West, John C Miller, Detwiler above him, Facchiano to the West of them and our neighbors across Norco Road (Rohrer and Boughman)  are all part of the pool from the Karl Jones rig, drilled during our lease term.

To our East/North East, James George is already getting royalties from the pool of Beadnell rig (also drilled during our lease term).  He also has a lease for his own pad which is planned but no work yet.  His first lease ran from 11/22/10 for 5 years and was extended.  

Ours ran from 3/25/11 for 5 years and they said they weren't renewing.

We were contacted by SAIC years ago to do water well testing, and they identified the George pad.  But since they just recently extended his lease, they certainly plan on drilling some day, right?

Am I missing something?  Thanks everyone.

Permalink Reply by Indiana Smith on June 23, 2016 at 3:30pm

I will attach a pdf file with the platmap for the nearest well to you.  Your property is about 1500 feet from the well bore.  The fracking only fractures out about 500' on each side of the bore (they have a rectangle that shows the area that was fracked... the gas is pulled from this area)

Here is a link to that well with production data and platmaps (they have several revisions):  https://gis.ohiodnr.gov/MapViewer/WellSummaryCard.asp?api=340192241...

Attachments:
Permalink Reply by KAR on June 24, 2016 at 3:19am

I didn't snoop around the ODNR website but taking a quick look at that plat it looks like CHK only included acreage within the buffer zone the ODNR requires for a well. The beautiful thing about horizontal drilling is the ability to drill multiple wells off a single pad. It's possible that eventual wells well be drilled off that pad and your acreage will be included. Otherwise, there isn't much you can do unless it's a ridiculous reason why you're being left out and you can try a reverse unitization (if it's even possible) to force yourself into a unit? 

Permalink Reply by David Allen Lilly on June 28, 2016 at 1:31pm

looking at the ODNR map linked above I see one well bore under Norco Road. Is this accurate ?

Permalink Reply by Robin on June 24, 2016 at 7:32am

I live in Green Twp, PA, and I have the same situation.  Every parcel of land surrounding ours has been contracted, yet ours hasn't.  When I spoke to Chesapeake awhile back, they gave me some blah blah and that they weren't taking any new contracts.  Found out they were, and also renewing the old ones.  How to tell if they are illegally drilling our minerals without permission?

Permalink Reply by Robin Smith-lutz on June 24, 2016 at 1:22pm

We are all being robbed and government officials who benefitted from CHK campaign donations are allowing it.

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