Arnold, oil companies don't spring up in a vacuum. Oil companies are started by other oil companies, often share executive personnel. The companies that provided the cash and brain trust for Antero, were themselves behind on division orders and payments before Antero was born. Look just a touch deeper.
Arnold L Stuart said:
R.W. Most of what you say is true, However: Antero Resources:
Company Facts
I will say once again. If you are going to play in this game, you need legal advice. I am receiving Royality Payments. I know others who are receiving royality payments. Antero is not bad to deal with compared to most O&G companies. But, they are expected to make a profit. They are contractors that contract work out to other contractors. At the end of 2013 they controlled 450,000 acres of mineral leases in Ohio, PA, and WV. They have somewhere around 400 employees. around 200 in 2013. They have a Capitalization in excess of $13B. In 1985 I was HR for a Defense contractor. 400 employees with a cap of about $40,000,000. How do they do this? They contract out just about everything. The Landmen/women are not Antero Employees, they are contract employees. The drill rigs are not owned by Antero, they are contracted. etc,etc. The pipeline employees, the road guards? All contract employees. I am no smarter than any of you. But, I got lucky. I had some experience in Natural resource contracting. I did not get to negotiate my lease, it was done by my father in 1960. It has a clause that says that we are to be paid 60 days after initial production. I started out trying to deal with them like good ol boys. Quickly learned through the SORO organization that that didn’t work. So, hired legal rep. for Surface Use Agreement/ pipeline ROW ect. Lawyer got too busy to respond to me as quickly as I felt I needed. Hired a Law firm that Advertised in NARO newsletter. They took me for $5000 before I wised up and terminated them. Hired another local Lawyer. First well started Production in 07/2013. In May 2014 had Lawyer send letter to Steptoe & Johnson quoting terms of my lease. Received Check in June for all RI up to April 2014. If I had as many leases as Arnold, I would probably have a law firm as large as Steptoe and Johnson representing me. My reason for writing this term paper(LOL) is to try to impress you that this is not a game for amateurs. If you are a mineral owner, you are the enemy of everyone who isn’t. The Non-mineral owning surface owners, the O&G company, the people who live along the roads and have to put up with the disruption of their lives, the environmentalists, the government who wants your money(does anyone remember the 1970’s Windfall profits tax?) . Guess who ended up paying that? Hint; it wasn’t the Exons. OK, guess I’ve vented enough. I’ll just finish by saying, "If you have an interest that would amount to 2 or more net acres, you can probably afford a lawyer. Oh, BTW The Mineral Web, (Where you are now) Has a natural gas royality calculator that can give you a pretty good idea of what your interest might be worth. Most of Antero’s pools seem to be between 200 and 400 acres. However, they do seem to be getting bigger. Have fun.
R Roberson: Thanks for the post and congratulations on your checks. The original intent of my post was to find out how many if any have been getting royalty checks THIS YEAR," sharing"really leads to piece of mind for many of us that are not getting checks. I still say that many of us on this forum cannot afford attorney's and while you did, more power to you, so until those first checks start coming in I will negotiate any leases myself. Again, congratulations on your success.
Mr Robinson, thanks for the heads up on this. I checked all my leases and they do state that royalties will be paid no later than 6 months after first sales. All of my wells had first sales in July 2014. I put a call into Antero, as it does not specifically state a penalty should they not meet the requirement. They would, however, be in breach of contract. The contract does not state a remedy for breach either. I'll see how they respond and then determine if I should seek counsel. I can never figure out those calculators, by the way! Laugh! Thanks for the post!
Excellent term paper.
Buddy Cotten
I will say once again. If you are going to play in this game, you need legal advice. I am receiving Royality Payments. I know others who are receiving royality payments. Antero is not bad to deal with compared to most O&G companies. But, they are expected to make a profit. They are contractors that contract work out to other contractors. At the end of 2013 they controlled 450,000 acres of mineral leases in Ohio, PA, and WV. They have somewhere around 400 employees. around 200 in 2013. They have a Capitalization in excess of $13B. In 1985 I was HR for a Defense contractor. 400 employees with a cap of about $40,000,000. How do they do this? They contract out just about everything. The Landmen/women are not Antero Employees, they are contract employees. The drill rigs are not owned by Antero, they are contracted. etc,etc. The pipeline employees, the road guards? All contract employees. I am no smarter than any of you. But, I got lucky. I had some experience in Natural resource contracting. I did not get to negotiate my lease, it was done by my father in 1960. It has a clause that says that we are to be paid 60 days after initial production. I started out trying to deal with them like good ol boys. Quickly learned through the SORO organization that that didn't work. So, hired legal rep. for Surface Use Agreement/ pipeline ROW ect. Lawyer got too busy to respond to me as quickly as I felt I needed. Hired a Law firm that Advertised in NARO newsletter. They took me for $5000 before I wised up and terminated them. Hired another local Lawyer. First well started Production in 07/2013. In May 2014 had Lawyer send letter to Steptoe & Johnson quoting terms of my lease. Received Check in June for all RI up to April 2014. If I had as many leases as Arnold, I would probably have a law firm as large as Steptoe and Johnson representing me. My reason for writing this term paper(LOL) is to try to impress you that this is not a game for amateurs. If you are a mineral owner, you are the enemy of everyone who isn't. The Non-mineral owning surface owners, the O&G company, the people who live along the roads and have to put up with the disruption of their lives, the environmentalists, the government who wants your money(does anyone remember the 1970's Windfall profits tax?) . Guess who ended up paying that? Hint; it wasn't the Exons. OK, guess I've vented enough. I'll just finish by saying, "If you have an interest that would amount to 2 or more net acres, you can probably afford a lawyer. Oh, BTW The Mineral Web, (Where you are now) Has a natural gas royality calculator that can give you a pretty good idea of what your interest might be worth. Most of Antero's pools seem to be between 200 and 400 acres. However, they do seem to be getting bigger. Have fun.
For those who have not yet leased, you need to get a provision on when the company must pay or expect long waits. Like we have said before, once the company gets you to sign a lease they pretty much are going to ignore you. No amount of calling or looking or traveling will get them to move. Here is a clause you may use or modify to be put in a lease. Without some form of this clause you will not get the company to pay royalties in a timely manner.
When Royalties Must Be Paid.
All royalties that may become due hereunder shall commence to be paid on the first well completed on the leased premises within one hundred-twenty (120) days after the first day of the month following the month during which any well is completed and commences production into a pipeline or oil into transport for sale of such production. On each subsequent well, royalty payments must commence within ninety (90) days after the first day of the month following the month during which any well is completed and commences production into a pipeline for sale or oil into transport of such production. Thereafter, all royalties on oil shall be paid to Lessor on or before the last day of the second month following the month of production, and all royalties on gas shall be paid to Lessor on or before the last day of the third month following the month of production. Royalties not paid when due shall bear interest at the prime rate as published by the Wall Street Journal as of the date payment is first due, plus five percent (5%) per annum.
Nancy Mosley said:
Good point. And for those who are not yet leased try to get language about being paid no later than a certain number of months after production starts or pay a high rate of interest on the owed royalty. Good luck with that but worth a try.
Was just informed today, upon my inquiry, that Antero will be paying 3% interest on royalties not paid with the 6 month required date as stated in my lease. Because the cannot make that timeline due to delayed title opinions. Because there is no such stated interest percentage stated in the lease itself, I guess 3% will have to do?
J.G. Some clauses can be harsher than that and include canceling the lease. I am glad they are going to pay you some kind of “penalty”. I would make sure it was without deductions. They like deductions you know.
Thanks! Yep...no deductions. I knew enough to ask that! LOL Thanks!
Jacqueline
How did you find out the date of your wells first sale?
Jacqueline Gum said:
Mr Robinson, thanks for the heads up on this. I checked all my leases and they do state that royalties will be paid no later than 6 months after first sales. All of my wells had first sales in July 2014. I put a call into Antero, as it does not specifically state a penalty should they not meet the requirement. They would, however, be in breach of contract. The contract does not state a remedy for breach either. I'll see how they respond and then determine if I should seek counsel. I can never figure out those calculators, by the way! Laugh! Thanks for the post!
I called Antero in Colorado and asked! They have been very forthcoming with any details I have asked of them. I called the number on their website about a year ago and they truly have returned all my calls. (303) 357-6405
This discussion is awesome! Richard, thanks for your candor. We (my cousin and I are working this puzzle together). Found a producing well that we haven’t received royalties on since at least 2005. Antero acquired it to operate in 2013. The contract was from 1974. Thank goodness I found most of the original documents from my mothers heirs ship from her father in 1984! Antero has so far retired calls and given me a timetable for their ownership research. We’ll see how it goes.
Does anyone have a link for the well map where you can enter API numbers and see production?
Select Database and Map Information
then Search Oil and Gas Database
then Search for Oil and Gas wells
But remember this info is old. The operators are required to report the year's production by the end of March the next year, then the Office has until August to get that into the database. The most recent is Dec 2013.
Thanks so much Nancy...and also for the reminder that they only have to file yearly. I'll bookmark the darn thing for future use. Have a great Thanksgiving:)
Thanks! You too. And look around the website. Lots there.
Oh I look all the time! I juts lost that thread!
Thanks Jacqueline.
Jacqueline Gum said:
I called Antero in Colorado and asked! They have been very forthcoming with any details I have asked of them. I called the number on their website about a year ago and they truly have returned all my calls. (303) 357-6405
This Year (2014) Antero started providing the info in Jan/Feb. I found mine in feb I believe. And I think the office of O&G have hired additional people. So, I’ll start checking in Jan. Stephanie, I sent you a friend request. Did you get it?
Great advice DT. Thanks!
DT said:
For those who have not yet leased, you need to get a provision on when the company must pay or expect long waits. Like we have said before, once the company gets you to sign a lease they pretty much are going to ignore you. No amount of calling or looking or traveling will get them to move. Here is a clause you may use or modify to be put in a lease. Without some form of this clause you will not get the company to pay royalties in a timely manner.
When Royalties Must Be Paid.
All royalties that may become due hereunder shall commence to be paid on the first well completed on the leased premises within one hundred-twenty (120) days after the first day of the month following the month during which any well is completed and commences production into a pipeline or oil into transport for sale of such production. On each subsequent well, royalty payments must commence within ninety (90) days after the first day of the month following the month during which any well is completed and commences production into a pipeline for sale or oil into transport of such production. Thereafter, all royalties on oil shall be paid to Lessor on or before the last day of the second month following the month of production, and all royalties on gas shall be paid to Lessor on or before the last day of the third month following the month of production. Royalties not paid when due shall bear interest at the prime rate as published by the Wall Street Journal as of the date payment is first due, plus five percent (5%) per annum.
Nancy Mosley said:Good point. And for those who are not yet leased try to get language about being paid no later than a certain number of months after production starts or pay a high rate of interest on the owed royalty. Good luck with that but worth a try.