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Speak With an Oil and Gas Attorney for Questions About Your Gas Royalties

oil and gas attorneyAs a Texas oil and gas attorney, I work with a lot of clients that have financial interests in a well and feel that one of the parties involved is not providing them with accurate information or the full benefit of their royalties.  This can be a complicated situation and to get started, I recommend that you set an appointment and bring any contracts you have with you.

Ensuring that your rights are protected in an oil & gas investment or partnership, begins with the contracts that you sign in the first place.  While many people prefer to do business on a handshake, this is not how you want to enter this industry.  The complex nature of the oil & gas business requires that you establish a firm contract from the beginning so that you can receive the royalties you are entitled to down the road.

In Texas, for example, leases are typically written so that if oil is found on your land and you have a company drill there, you will receive an ongoing royalty based on the oil that is found.  Typically the royalties are not diminished by the cost of producing the oil but the post-production costs, transportation, and taxes may be deducted from what is owed.  This is where having a contract comes into play.  If you don’t have one, your agreement will be interpreted by the court system in a dispute, and this is what they are likely to fall back on.  However, if you have a lease drafted from the beginning, we can include specific language that can further protect your rights while outlining the other party’s responsibilities.  As an oil and gas attorney, we can help you to draft this agreement prior to allowing anyone to drill on your property or if you are an investor, we can help by drafting investor documents and agreements prior to you putting cash into the deal.

With a contract in place, we can help you to determine if the other party is living up to their end of the bargain.  This often involves reviewing financial statements to ensure that the payments you are receiving are the ones that you are entitled to.  As an oil and gas attorney, we can review the income statements that they provide you and if there are further questions, we can engage the help of one of our trusted financial experts.  A thorough analysis will help us to determine what you should have been paid in comparison to what you were paid.  With this information in hand, we can very often negotiate with the other party and reach an agreement without having to go to court.  This is preferable simply because it gets you paid faster and will cost you less money in legal fees.  If, however, they are unyielding and refusing to negotiate or settle, we can file a civil case in court and seek a court order that would require them to pay you anything owed.  To discuss your case further, call and schedule a consultation.

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An Oil and Gas Attorney Can Help to Protect Your Investment

?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????As a Texas oil and gas attorney, we have witnessed a boom in the oil and gas industry first hand.  Over the past decade, new technology has made it possible to pull oil out of areas that were previously considered finished and places where oil was difficult to extract, are now producing high quantities.

This has created massive opportunities for investors looking to invest in a commodity with high demand. Investors from all over the country have been pouring money into oil companies in Texas and throughout the Bakken region.  Many of these investments have had a high payoff while others have left investors wondering what is going on.  Investing in a company outside of your area, can create these types of difficulties because you can’t simply drive over to the job site.

As an oil and gas attorney, we can help to make sure that your investment is protected.  This starts by reviewing the investment documents and prospectus ahead of time.  If you are evaluating a deal and considering investing, let us know, and we can review all of the documents for you.  We will make sure that your rights as an investor are protected, that you have the ability to get out of the investment in the future, and that there are specific provisions for communication and investor updates among others.

During your initial consultation, let us know what your goals are for the investment if you are looking to liquidate in the near future, give your shares to your children, etc.  This way we can make sure that these provisions are contained in the documents and if not, can make recommendations for changes.  After you have invested money, the company will be unlikely to negotiate with you, so it is important to do this first.

If you have already invested in the oil and gas industry and need help following up on your investment, let us know.  We can help you to determine where the project is at and make sure that your rights as an investor are protected by reviewing the documents that you signed.  We can also ask for financial statements and review them to make sure that you have been getting distributions like you are supposed to.  This becomes more important if you invested in a company or oil well that was thought to be dry but is now producing thanks to new technology.  If the company went back to the site and is now extracting oil, you should have the right to receive distributions from their profits, even if your investment took place years ago.

As an oil and gas attorney we find that most of these cases can be settled through negotiations without having to go to court.  We can litigate on your behalf if necessary, but most companies will respond to requests from a Texas attorney and comply by providing the information that we need.  Once we have reviewed everything, we will make a recommendation for how you should proceed and work towards protecting your investment and getting you the distributions that you deserve.