Thursday, September 30, 2010

Titan Files Rule 37 with the Texas Railroad Commission for Hilliard Site

Most people know that an operator cannot drill under their land without a lease, but do not understand what an application for Rule 37 exception is, nor what can happen if they receive notice and fail to protest. Unless a protest is filed per the deadline on the notice, the operator will be granted the Rule 37 exception. Upon the granting of the exception, the operator has the authority to drill the well and come as close as 1 foot of your property line.

Those of you that have not signed leases that are within 330 feet of the well bore path, have a right to file a protest. At least one person must file a protest for the exception not to be approved administratively. There must be a hearing if the Rule is protested.

For the Titan Rule 37 application, a protest notification must be received by 5:00 pm on October 21st.

The current Rule 37 filing only applies to the 1H South Unit

Looking at the
1H North Unit, Scroll down to the attachments, you can see the pool lists and it looks like they want to drill past many who have not signed as well. So there may be another Rule 37 application in the works.

Click here to go to the Form filed for the 1H South Unit with the TRRC. Then scroll down to the attachments. Click on "rrc service list" and "NOA-0267624.svc."

TXSharon has some more info on this too. click here

Please contact us via e-mail if you need more info.

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

If we want to protest but cannot make it down to Austin, can we appoint someone to represent all of the people who want to protest in Austin?

FMCAUD said...

I would call the Texas Railroad Commission. I know that a neighborhood in Fort Worth just went through this and not everyone that was against it went down. But the more protest notifications that are sent, the better.

FMCAUD said...

Please email us and we will put you in contact with residents that are planning to protest this.
fmcaudgroup@yahoo.com

TXsharon said...

Why pretend we own anything at all in Texas. It all belongs to Big Gas.

Anonymous said...

Just out of curiosity, where do the Hilliard's "rights" end, and the rest of ours begin? At what point? It certainly isn't where their "rights" impact the property values of their neighbors.

Hell, I should be allowed to open a strip club or a head shop in my neighborhood. At least I won't be fouling the air.

Anonymous said...

Only people with over 100 acres have rights in Flower Mound, weren't you notified?

Anonymous said...

We have a zoning classification for strip clubs in FloMo. There is a process in place, follow it to the letter of the law and go ahead and open it. I don't like it, but that's the beauty of a free market society.

Rick said...

Everyone who signed a lease has a "rights" associated with this. Hilliard may have the biggest stake but everyone who desires to have there minerals developed whether it be on 1/4 acre or a hundred acres have that right. These small tracts are a much larger interest as a group than Hilliard's and it is going to be hard to stop this if Cherokee has a high enough percentage signed...

Anonymous said...

What do the shaded areas on the N1 map indicated vs. the non-shaded areas?

Also, does a property owner with mineral rights have to receive a letter if Titian is going to file a Rule #37?

If the mineral rights owner does not receive notification, does it matter or will it be processed anyway?

Please advise....

Anonymous said...

Rick, the Texas State Constitution currently says different. Nobody has challenged industry or the RRC on it....yet.

iSeeker said...

Are you telling me that if approved on this Rule 37, that Titan can drill near (within 1ft) of my property for oil without signing a lease with me? Effectively, they can take my minerals without paying me? I thought this website had continuously said that they wouldn't be able to do this, that if they forced pooled us that they would have to pay us for our minerals. Is rule 37 different from forced pooling?

FMCAUD said...

They cannot go under your property and perf to get the minerals without you signing a lease or force pooling you. With the technology today, it is hard for them to "take or steal" minerals. If they do, it is a huge violation for the company and they have to pay you.
By the way Rick, it is not difficult to fight this. Many have been successful.
Everyone who is included in a Rule 37 application will receive a letter. At this time it only looks like a small area but there will be more in the future.
If you receive a letter, please contact us. We have been given some important info by those who have been through this already.

iSeeker said...

But basically, they will be drilling around me, and I will not be getting paid for it. I don't like to leave money on the table if there is nothing I can do about it. Oh, well. Let's keep fighting. I don't want any more of this in Flower Mound.

@8:02 - the shaded portions are properties that have not leased their mineral rights. In the N1 map, it looks like 85% of the land has been leased (548.139 acres out of 646.262). So 15% has not been leased.

I also noticed that land by Villages of Northshore HOA, Stafford Estates LP, Timple Baptist Church, Lake Forest GP (assume this is HOA), and the State of Texas has been leased. The church had 21.167 acres. Northshore had about 9.3 acres.

Anyone know why the HOA's caved on this?

Anonymous said...

For those who did NOT sign...Minerals cannot be taken without compensation. Period. In EVERY case to date with the RRC, IF people were force pool, they were compensated, better than people who signed leases. There are two ways this plays out. 1) They avoid you all together, you don't get paid and the number of wells, truck traffic, etc. is reduced. This could include a Rule 37, because they want to get REAL close to you to get to other minerals but will not take yours. 2) They force pool, you can still fight it as this point, and many are going to do that, but if unsuccessful, you still get paid. We are fighting for the right to decide whether to sell our private property or not, not whether or not we get paid. Some of us in America still believe in a free market system, not one in which the government tells us what we have to sell AND for how much.

iSeeker said...

@11:42 am -- I believe you are correct...that when forced pooling is done the unleased people get paid. From this article (http://www.crosstimbersgazette.com/local-news/1031-cherokee-horn-concludes-operations-in-flower-mound.html) it appears there is a third way:

"Cherokee Horn and Titan have a large enough leasehold saturation that they will not have to “force pool” any mineral owners. Force pooling allows an operator to drill underneath an unleased mineral interest, however in a force pooling situation those unleased owners receive a royalty payment of 20% to 25% when the well begins producing and then will back in for the remaining 70% to 75% after the operator has recouped their investment. Since Titan will be able to drill around the unleased owners, they are not obligated to pay the mineral owners anything."

That last sentence is weighty. Can you refute this?

Anonymous said...

Please re-read my last post. I said they cannot "take" your minerals without paying you. In #1, I also said that it is possible they will not take your minerals and you will not get paid. Most of the frequenters of this site don't mind that option, since it means less tank batteries, emissions, truck traffic, time the rigs will be there, less fracking, the list goes on and on. Is it in the realm of possiblity they will try to "cut-out" all of the non-signers, yes it is. I'm banking on the fact that gas operators like to make as much money as they can and if there is any possibility they can take them from you, they will try. Also, they must maintain a NFZ (No Perforation Zone) 330' feet from unleased tracks. (Don't confuse this with the recently filed Rule 37, the two are different requirements) If you look at all of the maps published on the leases they have/don't have, there are a LOT of minerals that will not be developed if you draw a 330' radius around every property that did not sign. That is the ignorance they hope to prey on, so that you will sign for as little money as possible and they can make as much as possible off of YOUR asset.

David said...

Louis McBee from NCTCA has made several trips to Austin to protest RULE 37's. I would contact him for advise.
www.nctca.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zJmVn4aT1c

Anonymous said...

Thank you to iSeeker for answering my question. I guess I do not know how to exactly read the map as it appears my lot is leased, however I did not lease it. I am sure it is a misunderstanding on my part, I'll keep looking into it.

Appreciate all your information!

Anonymous said...

Is there any way to protest the misleading information Cherokee Horn gave regarding the site location when the leases were signed? It was clearly stated that there wouldn't be traffic from 2499 directly across the Villages of Northshore subdivision and the site would be further east on the the Hilliard property.

iSeeker said...

@ 9:13am - if you click on the 1H North Unit link in the original post, and then click on the "Hilliard North Unit 1H tracts pg 1.tif" links (pg 1 through 6) under "File Path" you can look for your name. It lists the individual names or entities that have leased their mineral rights.

It took me a while to figure it out as well (I spent some time converting the doc to pdf and then to excel). For some general direction, 3040 is lot 12, McKamy Creek is between lots 1183/1182 on one side and 420/421,etc, on the other side. 797-803 is Ashby Drive in Stafford (bottom left), the pool in Northshore is 994 or 995.

Anonymous said...

To iSeeker: Thanks - That helped alot! Really helped with placement.

Anonymous said...

To Anyone: Can anyone tell if the H Murphy Survery # 822 is on Titans map. It appears just a little on the map but not all of it. This is odd. The Murphy Survery is on Titans paperwork, but the map appears to only show 6 lots. Any thoughts are welcome.

Anonymous said...

People seriously, why not try to inform yourselves before you make comments. There is NO SUCH THING as "force pooling" in the State of Texas.

Anonymous said...

I hope Cherokee horn finds gold or diamonds in the minerals here in flomo. Anyone think that they can sell that sort of stuff for their own profit??

Anonymous said...

>>There's not such thing as force >>pooling.

It's called the Mineral Interest Pooling Act, it's part of the Texas Natural Resources Code....please take your own advice on education before posting.

iSeeker said...

@ 8:29am - would you care to explain?

Anonymous said...

I guess not.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know what the drawn dotted lines, filled and open circles indicate on the plat map? The lines appear to be distances. Do these correspond to the comment lines at the top lefthand corner of the plat that talk about penetration points, inflection and perf points? What does this mean?