Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by E. Preston Rice on April 18, 2012 at 10:23am

Here it is April now, and Shell has made contact with us to include our land into the fish well with a new lease. I have asked the Tom Owlett in Wellsboro to help us out on this. Seems like a long way around to get to this point.

Permalink Reply by Betty on April 18, 2012 at 12:34pm

That's great news, even if it's been a long ride!  Did Shell modify the unit size and that's why you are now included?

Permalink Reply by E. Preston Rice on April 18, 2012 at 12:43pm

I think that is what is happening. From what I can gather the well will be drilled at the Fish site, along with some others,

Permalink Reply by Betty on April 18, 2012 at 12:47pm

nice to hear there's some action other than helicopters flying around with seismic equipment

Permalink Reply by Doug Pierson on April 19, 2012 at 1:32am

Hi Preston.  Glad to hear the news.  I was wondering - what's going on at the Fish pad now?  Last I heard - a few months ago - was that the rig was there and they were drilling.  

Permalink Reply by E. Preston Rice on April 19, 2012 at 1:55am

Drilling has been completed, and fracking completed. That leaves me questioning the change in our status, unless they decide to go back and drill at the same pad. As of today on Landex there is no notification of unit change that includes the Rice land.

Permalink Reply by E. Preston Rice on April 20, 2012 at 2:09am

Looks like the gas man is playing hardball. We had a lawyer look over the lease agreements-he suggested a series of changes to the amendments, and then told us that when the land man dropped off the lease that he stated that if it was not signed this Saturday that we would get a much lesser amount for the signing bonus. He stated amounts that I will not mention. Do they usually push for such a quick sign? Have any of you been successful in having addendums modified to your benefit?

Permalink Reply by Doug Pierson on April 20, 2012 at 2:39am

Well..I suppose they are always pushing for a quick sign, but this is the first I've read about them downgrading the offer based on time.  The landman told you that, or told your lawyer that?  You're not buying a used car here.  It could have been just talk.  There's a post on the main page from someone who just signed with Shell and they got 18%, no Deductions, and 3250 per acre.  If that helps.  I agree with you that it does seem odd that they are coming to you now for inclusion into the Fish well unit.  I thought they needed to have a property owner under lease BEFORE they set up the unit and started drilling.  Unless, as you said, they're going to come back and drill more at that site.  Not very efficient.  I can tell you that I haven't received a revision to the pooling document, nor has Shell come to me to increase the maximum unit size in our lease.  Currently, it's still set at 640 acres and the actual unit size is a little over 300 acres.

Last year we did do some amendments and I was successful in negotiating changes that I wanted.  But the landman didn't have any authority to approve anything on his own.  He had to take it all back to his boss.  They don't play their entire hand at once.  You'll have to push back for changes to see which ones Shell will allow to get them included.  I got the impression that the supervisor already had a predetermined list of modifications that Shell would allow, but waited for me to ask for them first.  We went back and forth for two months until we were both happy.  Good luck.

Permalink Reply by E. Preston Rice on May 8, 2012 at 2:56am

Signing went well. Amendments are in.

Permalink Reply by Betty on May 8, 2012 at 3:46am

Congrats and good luck! 

Permalink Reply by Lynn Wigglesworth on May 9, 2012 at 3:19am

Great! Did you ever find out what is going on?  Wells usually go out in 2 directions from the well pad.  If the unit was only 300 acres before, maybe they drilled all the wells in one direction and planned to lease the rest of the land and drill in the other direction. Setting up the well pad, then leasing the property in the unit seems like a backwards way to do it, but they've done it before.

Permalink Reply by E. Preston Rice on September 7, 2012 at 1:00pm

Interestingly enough, just as we believed we were in the home stretch with Shell, after signing the lease, reorganizing the family under an LLC, and waiting for the lease bonus payment-today we received notice that the lease was void! Has anyone else had this happen of late?

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