Revised lease

Antero contacted us to sign a revised lease 2 weeks back. We originally signed with eclipse ,who sold to antero and now just 2 weeks from drilling the laterals on the Mahoney unit they are offering a signing bonus to sign this lease.....anyone else get approcached? It all seems fishy to me......Can anyone help with a name of a good G&O attorney ?

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Mosley on July 6, 2014 at 4:22pm

What state and county?

Permalink Reply by Mary Schultz Price on July 6, 2014 at 11:28pm

noble co. ohio

Permalink Reply by Frank Walker on July 7, 2014 at 12:00am

You are smart to be seeking a good attorney pronto.  You could have a nice payday ahead of they cannot drill the laterals as they wish without your land.  Best of luck to you!

Permalink Reply by scott peterson on July 7, 2014 at 5:04am

Bill Williams from KWG&D in Canton. Dont even think about signing anything w/o a thorough review.

Permalink Reply by Dexter Green on July 7, 2014 at 5:31am

Don't even think about talking to Bill Williams unless you have one hand on your wallet and the other on a loaded gun.  You've been warned. 

Permalink Reply by scott peterson on July 7, 2014 at 5:37am

Why do you say that Dex, myself & many others on here have had great experiences with them.

 

Permalink Reply by Dexter Green on July 7, 2014 at 5:44am

Then you are one of the lucky ones.  The sideways $h!t he's pulled over the years makes for some interesting campfire stories. 

Permalink Reply by Jeremy on July 15, 2014 at 5:09am

I agree based on my father's dealings with KWG&D.  Bill's proposals would have lost my father a lot of money had my father not had the foresight to eventually dump his services.

Permalink Reply by Jack Straw on July 7, 2014 at 5:32am

Best of luck to you Mary.

Congratulations, you have been given the rare opportunity to have a "do-over".

It would be appreciated if you could return once matters were settled and (in general terms) tell us how things worked out for you.

We are here to learn from each other; we are here to help one another.

Best regards,

                        JS

 

Permalink Reply by The Hiker on July 7, 2014 at 9:41am

Forget Bill Williams;  I was part of the Krugliak/Williams group that was formed in Cambridge in 2011 and can vouch that he was only out for the money and the ____ with the landowners.  Smoke and mirrors and "we're having a signing, and I want you all to come and sign" (so I can collect the fee, no matter what the lease says...we tried our hardest you know ha ha).   When the group was split into 3 groups and the Noble people were assigned to sign with Eclipse for stupidly low money and a terrible lease, I bailed out.

Brickler and Eckler have a satellite office in Marietta manned by a young attorney Flite Freimann (740 374 2274) who has the inside track on more experienced guys in Columbus.  You might try him for starters, or try Dick Emmens and Sean Jacobs in Columbus (614 414 0888).  These guys are very experienced O/G attorneys (and pricey, but then you pay for what you get, and a successful negotiation could pay you back many times the cost of their services!).  Or, you could call Dale Arnold at the Ohio farm Bureau (614 246 8294); he is an expert landowner advocate and has given many seminars on leasing.  He's got a list of good attorneys in Ohio that he will send you.  Good guy.   

If Antero is already drilling the laterals, and you are in the unit....and the old Oxford or new Eclipse lease has a defect that needs to be fixed....well, you are in a very good position.

Once you are in a unit and you start receiving royalties, you will ask yourself "is my royalty stub correct?  How do I know that it is?  How do I know that this well produced X Mmcf/d?"  Ask your attorney to give you language giving you access to the (daily?) (monthly?) results from the on-pad measurement device, which will probably include a mass spectrometer printout of the contents of the gas.   This is more important for wet gas, but I would ask for it regardless if I had the leasing process to do over.   Most of the seminars I went to and advice I got were for the before-drilling phase of it all, and very little on after-drilling, so that was reflected in the lease language.   Do you trust the ODNR to publish accurate well yield information?  They only publish what the oil companies tell them with no auditing that I am aware of.....the meter on the pad is the only trustworthy record of production IMHO.

Good luck to you.

Permalink Reply by James Foster on July 7, 2014 at 11:14am

Tzangas, Plakas, Mannos & Raies out of Canton, Ohio

www.lawlion.com

I believe they are the attorneys who took the case against Chesapeake/Anschutz regarding the leases Anschutz sold to Chesapeake. And I have heard them speak at several meetings.

Stubbins, Watson & Bryan out of Zanesville

www.zanesville.law.pro

Bricker & Eckler Columbus. 

www.bricker.com

We have a group in Southern Ohio who are working with these two firms.  Stubbins, Watson, & Bryan are more local and were hired to do some work with members with lease issues.

Harrington, Hoppe, and Mitchell

hhmlaw.com 

offices in Youngstown, Warren, St. Clairesville, Salem

These were the attorneys when we signed our first lease here in Columbiana County.

They certainly did not overcharge us at that time for the large group we had.

They did not do a percent of signing (or royalty which I would not agree to at all) at that time.

For looking over a lease and commenting on it I would guess an hours time at $200 an hour for most of these firms.  Call and ask them for an estimate for reviewing a lease with comments.  We have had some papers reviewed by emailing them and they email back comments.  These were papers we were asked to sign after leasing and before having a well drilled on us. 

My advice is call several places including Bill Williams.  I think you will know after a few minutes of conversation if you feel comfortable with the firm.  Also, if I were you I would spend the money to have two places review this paperwork.  You do not want to step over a dollar to pick up a penny!

Permalink Reply by Mike h on July 8, 2014 at 6:14am

I would recommend Harrington, Hoppe and Mitchell. I've dealt with Alan Wenger and he's a straight shooter, very detail oriented and had a quick response time.

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