I own interest in some gas wells in East Texas. I would like to know if there is any way to verify the BTU content of the gas that is being produced from the wells on my property.
Is there someway that I can use data reported to the Railroad Commission to verify the BTU content of the gas produced each month from the wells or do I have to just take the Operators reporting of the BTU content on my checks at face value?
I do not know of a TRRC reporting requirement to state the BTU monthly. If not reported on the check, it can be requested from the payor under Section 91.504 of the Texas Natural Resources Code.
The valuation of the gas will be based on the BTU per MCF as I understand it. My limited observation is that the higher BTU has an associated condensate.
Understood, thank you very much for taking the time to reply to my question.
That is unfortunate, in Oklahoma BTU content is required to be reported for monthly gas production for their Form 300.
1000 cubic feet (mcf) of natural gas = 1,038,000 btu, you can do the back end calculations to figure it out if you really want to. If you are asking if theres an actual way to verify the amount of gas coming from the well like going out to the well site to see, youll have to rely upon the RRC, operators and the numbers they report.
Many of our royalty checks provide the BTU by well. They do vary a bit, with the liquids-rich gas a bit higher in BTU value.
Typically, the BTU analysis comes from the Gas Purchaser or Pipeline Company, not the Operator. The Operator just pays you based on what they got paid. Not sure how you could go about verifying it yourself. I suppose you could ask the Operator to do an independent analysis, but they wouldn’t have any obligation to do so. They have more at stake than you do, so if there was any concern that the gas was being undervalued, I’m pretty sure they would look into it.
Pure Methane is approximately 1,000 MMBtu, but most gas has some heavier components (Ethane, Propane, Butane, etc) mixed in which will give a higher value.