How to find accurate map with GPS coordinates for actual well plat?

I currently own property in Greene county. I own mineral rights on 447 acres. EQT has created a well site in the middle of my property rights. However, according to them, I only own 280 acres of 669 acres the well is to cover. Problem is, the original deed are in early American deed writing with boundaries starting at a white oak tree, going 30 purces to a rock, thence by property of ........., to a post etc. While I have a pretty good idea of the actual property line, I cannot find anywhere EQT's actual propert lines. I have names of 10 surface owners and their leases with a diagram but no reference to any physical, map of how their boundaries are laid out. Can anyone help me as to where to look, I have a copy of a proposed well plat location with names of owners properties but again, no actual boundaries for their leases? ? ? 

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Permalink Reply by KAR on January 21, 2016 at 2:01pm

If you put the coordinates into google earth you should be able to find where the top hole, landing point and bottom hole locations are. Can you share the coordinates?

Permalink Reply by Dudley rainey on January 21, 2016 at 2:34pm

sure, I did that but EQT doesnt seem to agree with the boundaries that this well seems to be within?   All in NAD 83

Proposed well location and KOP    North 39 57'32.24" ; True West  80 18'39.22"

      Location Landing at     Lat 39 57' 23.26"  Long  80 19'01.79

      Locagtion of total depth Horizontal section  Lat 39 59'43.96   Lon 80 18' 23.55"   

12 wells     Koloski well sight

Permalink Reply by Mrs Frederick on January 21, 2016 at 3:11pm

PART 1

The only way for you to accurately locate this parcel using the legal description of a deed from 1939, is to follow the chain of title forward from that date and verify the present day tax parcel number--or parcels.  It has most likely been subdivided along the way and now encompasses more than one parcel.  It might not even correspond entirely to tax parcel footprints.

All of this GIS info, coordinates of the EQT permit and plat, etc, will do nothing for you until you can place the 1939 legal description on the ground.

PART 2

You need to verify oil and gas reservation language and then research all of the heirs of your great, great grandfather.  Each of your grandmother's siblings will need to be researched to verify ownership.  It is VERY UNLIKELY (based on what you have stated so far) that you own more than a few net mineral acres.  If your grandmother shared equally with her siblings, each of them got about 64 acres (do the math--447 divided by 7).  If your mother was an only child and you are an only child and everyone in YOUR DIRECT chain of "heir-ship" died intestate or left everything to their only child, then you COULD own ~64 net mineral acres.   All of your grandmother's other siblings and their heirs own the other fractional interests--unless of course you find a recorded document that conveys those interests into your grandmother or your mother's name or your name.

It was very uncommon for any family in Greene County to have such a limited number of children.  This is not research to be done by a layman, and it is not for the faint of heart.  Every person who ever might have owned any of the OGM's needs to be searched in all of the records in Greene County.  This will cost you something...and with all due respect to everyone on this thread who has GIS/Mapping Expertise, they should refer you to PART 1 & PART 2  before attempting to give you a map.

Locating this acreage means little until you verify what you own, if anything.

PART 3


Based on my experience (and Tyler James of the post dated January 14th of this thread--another experienced abstractor will probably agree--and any other experienced title abstractors who might be lurking on this thread), if you really do own any oil and gas rights that are purportedly in a PERMITTED unit with EQT, their land department is in the process of locating you to get a ratification, modification or initial lease covering your OGM's.  EQT does very good land work and they are not known to drill until they have everyone on their unit declarations, along with proper modifications of old leases.  If "Granny's" name is on the unit declaration, once again you need to research the chain of a leasehold (entirely different from a chain of ownership) if EQT is drilling on an old leasehold that was assigned and/or held by production for all of these years.

It's possible that Granny or Great-Great Grand-Dad leased this land, and then sold it along with the OGM's.   If EQT is unitizing an old leasehold, your family name may be on the original lease and/or an old well.  But if they did not reserve the OGM's when they sold the surface, then your family owns nothing.  Not even your second, third and fourth cousins.

It is true that there may be a unit declared, a permit approved and a well plat at the DEP level, but without doing all of the complex OWNERSHIP research, it could be located on Mars and you still get nothing. 

Ahem.  

2 cents, please.

BTW--Dud--I noticed that you had the start of another thread in October 2013 that seems to be about this same piece of property.  Are you really interested in finding out what you own and where it is located?  Or is this conversation and thread just a form of entertainment?

I realize you may be offended by my question.  But really...what are you hoping for here?  It sounds to me like you have a better chance of winning the power ball than owning any oil and gas in Greene County.  

Permalink Reply by Dudley rainey on January 21, 2016 at 3:36pm

First off, I HAVE followed the chain of deeds and ownership. The orriginal deed in 1939, gave each of 7 children ALL rights to the property. Thereby each child had 1/7 of ALL rights to ALL minerals under the total 447 1/2 acres. Because Pitts Consol Coal was involved from 1900 and mining coal through all the acreage, each deed included the right of way for Consol coal to mine the property "reserving to the owners all rights to drill for oil and gas (specific) without encumbrance. The deeds were updated with additional leases or amendments in 1950, 1978 where in my parents signed the deed or agreement reiterating the control of all oil and gas rights. While the surface properties were broken up and sold, the mineral right remained in the possession of the original 7 cousins of the original 7 brothers and sisters of the family. Without going into specifics, I have all the deeds actually from 1900 when an original deed including part of the total property was granted to another party before reverting back to the orriginal owner, my great grand mother. That being said, my cousin who lives next to the property and is one of the ancestors of the original 7 cousins has given me a hand drawn diagram of the property, which of course is not totally accurate.   What I want, is to find out what EQT has collected in the Dec Pool they created so I can find if they are paying royalties on only part of my property. They are using a deed from 1900 that is no longer accurate ?? ?  and oh by the way, EQT has been paying me royalties for 2 years now, first on another well site that only included part of my property and now for several months on the newest well site,but at a minute fraction of what 1/7 of the oil and mineral rights should be worth. 

Permalink Reply by Dudley rainey on January 21, 2016 at 3:48pm

Maybe you should butt out of this thread of conversation if all you want to do is make snide comments. I guess maybe I did win the powerball as they are paying me for 18 wells, just not appropriately which is why I am trying to find physical proof of what THEY have declared in this pool as mine, then why they are giving me a decimal equivalent of very very little when my deeds show 1/7 of all mineral rights for my family! 

Permalink Reply by William Dotson on January 21, 2016 at 3:56pm

It really is not that expensive to have a quality, bonded, title company run the rights. It usually costs @ $100.00/decade/property and they will provide you with verified chain of title and a plat map of the lease.

Permalink Reply by Mrs Frederick on January 21, 2016 at 4:10pm

I really do apologize, Dudley,

It was not my intent to offend you.  UP until this point, you did not mention that the purpose of your research was to verify if your check is appropriate for the amount of acreage that you have in the unit.

There are also professional auditors out there who can do a detailed division order analysis to make sure you are getting your legal share.

And a final friendly reminder--it was a 1/7th interest when your grand-mother owned it.  You need to do the fractional interest at every generation...

This is VERY common in Greene County and WV--lots of generations of ownership, every share becomes smaller and smaller with every generation.  And you already told us that not all of your acreage is in the unit.

Permalink Reply by Dudley rainey on January 21, 2016 at 4:45pm

Shouldnt work that way. The property was given to 7 children equally. My great great grandmother, gave the propety to include my great grandmother, then passed on to my mother then to me.l.....all direct. Each of the other 6 received their property as 1/7th from Great great grandmother, to their grandmothers ( as stated in the deed in 1939), then each grandmother to their children. There it does break up as the other cousins had several children and THEIR portion of the 1/7 becomes diluted. My however, was a direct decendency as my mother was an only child, her mother was the original daughter to receive the deed. While we own mineral rights on 447 1/2 acres, EQT claims they have pooled only 281 acres of a 469 acre plat. or 60% of the acreage on myproperty. Ok.while I dont necessarily agree with this as my assessment of the amount of acreage, as the location of everything on their well location plat which I offered earlier, shows them to have their wells directly under all my land. BUT, even if it is only 281 acres actually in the pool, 1/7 of 60% of the royalties should be a little more than .012 percent of the total royalties on gross revenues of $3,965,470.95 or well net revenues of $2,739,288.07 ! ! !  somehow $9,000 isnt even close to 1/7th of anything!

Permalink Reply by William Dotson on January 21, 2016 at 6:10pm

So your 281 acres/669 total acres=42% of the minerals making up the pool belong to your family. You own 1/7th of that, so 6% of the total production counts towards your interest in the unit. $2,739,288 * 6% = $164,368.98 would be the amount you would receive royalty payments on. At 12.5% that should be $20,546.12 ...It would appear you are due about $11,000

Permalink Reply by David on January 22, 2016 at 3:11am

you are missing a step here since only 281 acres out of 447.5 are in the unit you need to first divide the acres in the unit by the total acres in the lease assuming all of the acres are on a single lease. My advice is to take your paperwork to your local bank assuming they have an oil and gas department or specialist. They should be able to help you correctly determine your decimal interest.

Permalink Reply by Mrs Frederick on January 22, 2016 at 4:30am

Hey Dudley--me again....

LMAO here...you've come back around to your initial question.

You still need to get the tax parcel layer and the actual DEP Well Plat layer and see how much of the DEP plat overlaps your land.  

EQT originally declared 469.07 acres in the unit (county level recorded unit declaration Record Book 475-1362)

Subsequently, at the DEP level the unit plat is only 264 Acres.  It looks like you own more like approx 200 mineral acres of the total 264 unit acres.  This means you own more like 1/7th of 75% of the total production of this unit.  (Thank you William Dotson for your more thorough math with all of the steps).

Please see the private messages that I sent you with the unit declaration document attached.  

I shall assume you have the DEP plat since you've been specific about the coordinates, but if you need the well plat from DEP, please private message me.

Permalink Reply by Dudley rainey on January 22, 2016 at 5:44am

Thanks David,

Actually, by conversation with a person at EQT, they said I have 4 units. 2 of which are at 12.5% and 2 are at 18%. I was told that while they show 200 acres I am supposed to have 281 acres in the plat. The plat they claim is 469 + acres.  Even at that, it really starts to look like I'm getting short changed huh?

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