Last year we received notice Chesapeake was going to drill a well through our property. We were given 14 days to respond to the notice if we felt it may affect our water because it showed it will be close to our wells.  After a few phone calls, I discovered the company we had our lease with sold it to Chesapeake. We then learned we are a small part of unit called the Yost Well. That raised some questions:

1. Why didnt the company we signed with notify us?

2. It is  now 14 months later and we still have no official notification. Is something wrong?

3. We see the map showing the layout for the well is 75% on our property. We were told by the surveys and tests they did that we have highest concentration of natural gas in the county. I know that is irrelevant until they drill. BUT I feel like we are being cheated. They have included other properties as part of a large unit, yet only about 20 of our 200 acres is included. That means we have a very small portion of the unit, and get a much smaller portion of the royalties even though 75% of it is entirely through our property into the area shown to have the highest concentration.  I know our lease royalty rate is a much higher percentage than Chesapeake leases.  Can they partition off just the portion of our land the well runs through to make our portion of the unit so small? Our lease is for our one parcel which is 200 acres. I think I smell a big rat

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Dr. Maxwell,

I'll do my best to answer these for you.

1. They didn't have to notify you unless such notification is specifically mentioned in the old lease.

2. Nothing's wrong.  This is business as usual.

3. Unless your old lease says otherwise (and I'm betting it doesn't) Chesapeake can include any amount of your acreage into their unit.  If the well bore takes a path that only covers 20 of your 200 acres then that's what they'll put into the unit.  Some companies will draw large unit maps despite the fact that the wells won't drain from such a radius.  But once your 20 acres are in the unit you're held by production in perpetuity.  That's not a rat you smell, that's just the way the industry works.

doc, that 20 acre figure rings a bell.

do you have the friendsville lease?

wj

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