Hello, my wife and her two siblings own mineral rights in a couple areas of doddridge co and they’ve been offered a sum for them. We’re just wondering how to find out what’s going with the Antero wells in that area and what to do about the offer. It seems to me that the guy making the offer must know something about the wells’ future. Any ideas?
Nancy, I love this quote:> they say all good things comes to those who wait, What they don’t say is how much crap you have to go through while your waiting.
The minimum royalty that can be paid in WV is 12.5%, or 1/8. Leasing rights and the right to receive royalties can be separated. It’s weird now, but it made sense to the people who did it.
Hi Jim, those old wells do decline. However, the new wells pay really well. So hang on to the mineral rights! And the NARO videos really are good.
No but my grandparents were from Ritchie County, and their parents, and some further back. My dad’s parents moved to Marietta when they married so he grew up there. I still have some distant cousins in Ritchie. Maybe some from Doddridge but I don’t know any. Marsh and Cline were old family names from near Doddridge on the Ritchie side. From Mole Hill which became Mountain.
Thanks, Nancy! Actually, the offer is to buy our rights. I looked up the website you offered and I found one well name with two different numbers. Don’t know if that means there are two wells in that area or what, but we have four well area names that I assume will become well names, if and when they drill on them. We’re just wondering what a fair price would be for two districts that we evidently have mineral rights on?!
Jim, what I read on these forums is that, unless you really need the money, it is best to hold on to your mineral interests. Then people say a few more things, like will they ever be drilled on etc. However almost all areas of Doddridge County is being drilled.
On that same main website here is another place to look
If you find an API number (well number explained here )
you can put that in the attribute search and when you see the blue circle, zoom in. Or you can just zoom in slowly until you find Doddridge and look around. There are lots of red star looking things with orange lines coming out, usually going in a northwest - southeast direction. Those lines are the horizontal legs of wells, and the red stars are the well pads. You can see how many there are already. Probably almost all of the county will be drilled, if they keep finding things they like (lots of gas and especially the liquid rich gas that is under most of the county). Most or maybe all of these wells are Marcellus shale wells. There are other shale formations below that which are expected to be good producers. So in the long term, worth lots and lots of money.
About the well names with different numbers, usually they name wells on a lease acreage after either the surface owner or the royalty owner. Not always. Then often it is #1, #2, etc.
Do you know if you wife and siblings are currently receiving royalty payments for any wells?
Lots to learn. I still learn quite a lot every day and I have been studying this stuff for a few years now. Purely an amateur but every mineral owner needs to learn as much as possible to be able to make good decisions.
Nancy, to answer your question, yes, they’ve been receiving checks, but they have gotten quite small. The well that is producing is a very old vertical well and is probably drying up!
I would like to recommend that everyone take Eleanor’s advice and look at NARO’s website, http://naro-us.org and watch the videos, I did last nite and it great info for all novice royalty owners. I am forwarded the website to all my relatives, so that we can all learn and get our records in order for our heirs. Thank you , Eleanor
Nancy, thanks again for the advice. If you don’t mind me asking, are you from WV? My wife’s family is from Doddridge Co. And we’re wondering if they might know you, if you’re from there.
Hi Jim Greaver, There are a few things your wife and siblings can do.
Go to this website https://apps.dep.wv.gov/oog/permitsearch_new.cfm
and select Doddridge for the county. Select Antero for the company and some recent date. It will take you first to a page where you select Antero (when I just now did it, Antero Resources… was the only choice - not always the case) It will show you many permits issued to Antero in Doddridge in the time period selected.
It is a busy place.
Is the offer to purchase the mineral rights or to lease them? a big difference. Read on this site, but the two important numbers are royalty percentage and bonus offer per acre. Not sure about Doddridge but I think it is between 15 and 18% for the royalty, and maybe $2000-$3000 for bonus. Then when they drill a well (might not happen and might not happen soon but if it does…) the royalty money tends to be large, people say. There is a lot of great information here, even on this Doddridge main group page. Read as much as you can. The more you know the better off you are. And feel free to ask questions. Lots of people here who have at least some answers.
Thanks Kyle!
Does anyone what to do if you have been told you are part of a petiton lease for pearly Langfitt. Thanks
Thanks again, Nancy. And thanks Kyle, I’ll have to look into that. If the agreement was already signed for , say 8%, can we challenge it?
Thanks, Bertie Lou, I’ll definitely check them out!
Linda, here are the phone numbers for the WV unclaimed property department. 304-558-2937 Toll Free: 800-642-8687. They say on their website that they will help you research for free, so I am sure they will tell you what you need to do. You may need to have some of your family tree put together. Do you know how you are related to Pearly Langfitt or the Sweeneys?
Linda, I am unfamiliar with the General Registrar.
We have Langfitts in the family, but it is way back. I don’t think it has anything to do with your situation now.
Thanks Stephanie but it is not unclaimed. Property they could not locate enough Langfitt’s so they pay the royalties into the General Registrar. Linda
So I went back and read all of the discussions on this thread and I saw where people were getting antsy about when they’d start seeing royalty checks. Has anyone started getting the checks and, I’ll put it this way, is it worth the wait?!
Some update on Antero Marcellus wells in WV.
Marcellus Shale- Antero has utilized shorter stage length (“SSL”) completions on virtually all of its 70 Marcellus wells completed and placed on line in 2014. Actual average SSL production rates, compared to the non-SSL type curve, continue to exhibit a 20% to 30% improvement. The average well cost for an SSL well, defined as a well with an average stage length less than 225 feet, is approximately 10% to 15% higher than a comparable non-SSL well with an average stage length of 350 feet.
Additionally, 47 of the 70 completed wells have been on line for more than 30 days and had an average 30-day rate of 12.9 MMcfe/d in ethane rejection (15% liquids). The average lateral length for the 47 wells was approximately 8,150 feet. The Company continues to complete some of the longest laterals in the Marcellus Shale, having recently drilled the Weigle 1H with a lateral length of approximately 10,700 feet and 70 frac stages.
In July of 2014, Antero placed on line the four-well Bee Lewis pad in its Highly-Rich Gas regime, having an average Btu of 1265, which had a combined 79 MMcfe/d peak 5-day sales rate in ethane rejection (27% liquids). These strong initial rates are indicative of the successful recent transition of Antero’s development program into the more liquids rich areas of its Marcellus leasehold position utilizing SSL completions.
Antero is currently operating 15 drilling rigs in the Marcellus Shale play including four intermediate rigs. The Company has 76 gross (75 net) horizontal wells either in the process of drilling, completing or waiting on completion as well as two gross (two net) wells waiting on pipeline in the Marcellus. Antero currently has five dedicated frac crews and one spot frac crew working in West Virginia.
During the first half of 2014, Antero added approximately 22,000 net acres and currently holds approximately 369,000 net acres in the southwestern core of the Marcellus play. Approximately 31% of this net acreage was associated with proved locations and approximately 10% with proved developed locations at mid-year 2014. Additionally, approximately 70% of the leasehold is believed to contain processable rich gas assuming an 1100 Btu cutoff.
Marcellus Processing Update
Antero currently has access to a total of 600 MMcf/d of cryogenic processing capacity at the MarkWest Sherwood processing facility located in Doddridge County, West Virginia. The Company has committed to four additional 200 MMcf/d cryogenic processing plants, Sherwood 4, 5, 6 and 7. Sherwood 4 is expected to go on line in the third quarter of 2014, Sherwood 5 is expected to go on line in the fourth quarter of 2014, Sherwood 6 is expected to go on line in the second quarter of 2015 and Sherwood 7 is expected to go on line in the third quarter of 2015. These commitments provide Antero access to a total of 1.4 Bcf/d of Marcellus cryogenic processing capacity. Ethane is currently being rejected at the Sherwood processing facility and sold in the gas stream.