How can you get screwed by a oil company?

My dad's family owned shares in an oil company. I can remember as a child, seeing a lot of checks for 2-3 cents from this oil well. Now my father is deceased and I can't seem to get any answers about the oil well. He received these checks just about all his life, and he was 87 when he died. I contacted the company that managed the oil and the response was unsatisfying to say the least. Why did the amount of his checks ever show any real profit. It is still operating today and is now involved with some large corporations, Monsanto Carpets, Exxon, and lastly the Bush family. How could the McGowan Working Partners mess over all these people , then sit around and watch them die from old age then, snub their relatives. This I am sure of one thing, they are making plenty money from this venture or they would have closed this file many years ago. Is George and his family enjoying the benefits that our family should have had? How can I get some answers and some real benefits for our familyHow can you get screwed by a oil company?
He probably had royalties or working interests. If the money was from a well, and not from actual stock in the company. In which case the well may have closed or gone dry, thus ending the payment checks. Depending on his ownership, he either invested in the well or held some title to the mineral rights surrounding the well.





If he invested, a working interest would be useless to you as you would incur joint interest billing to maintain the well. If he owned the mineral rights and recieved royalty checks, then it may still be valuable. If you know where the well was, you can research the mineral ownership, and as his next of kin you would be entitled to existing or future production royalties.





If he owned shares in the company itself, you need only to find the stock certificates, or research the companies records. Surely an attorney could help you there. I would check with both oil and gas, and estate and probate attorneys.





FYI some companies that sell investments in oil/gas wells sell working interests that either have a capped return, or expire in some amount of time.





Also, some production companies will take on investors and then ';close the well';. Essentially telling their investors to take off, the will then reopen the well, and reap its benefits. It may be comforting to you to know that most people can only perform this scam a few times before the word gets out and no one will work with them again. it also may be comforting to you to know that investing in oil/gas is 100% deductible, so instead of giving his money to the gov't your dad simply gave an oil investment a shot at virtually no cost to him.How can you get screwed by a oil company?
Call George.
ask Ken Lay or Jeff Skiling from ENNRON I bet they have good advise ! ! ! !
get an attorney or talk to an registered stock accountant.
Look through all his papers, safe deposit boxes, any old books he had(some older peole hid things in books) old cans around his home place, to find a stock certificate or partnership in the oil well, you may be able to go on-line and find the company and a list of it's share holders.Good Luck***
Those were dividend checks. Your dad probably only owned like 1 share. That's the way it works.
We all get screwed by the Oil companies every time we go to a gas station. In your case, you need to hire a lawyer. Also, let us never again elect an oil man to the office of the president.
Contact an attorney who specializes in oil and gas law. Email me for a referral.
You don't even have to buy the oil company dinner for them to screw you, that is just part of their value added service. Lawyers can be expensive, if you are going to pursue this go the class action route, it divides your expenses among other wronged parties but shouldn't effect anything you'd get from them.