Greetings,
I am writing on behalf of my Grandparents. They own acreage in Doddridge County and recently received an offer of $3000.00 to purchase their minerals.
Does anybody know what the going rate to purchase minerals is in the area? We are out of state and don't know what would be a fair price, or if it makes sense at all to sell.
Any advice or input would be appreciated.
Thank You,
Robert Fetter
Do not sell. ask at least $3500 per acre and 20% royalties to lease. Maybe more. Seek legal advice if possible. There is much helpful info on this site.
My sisters and I sold ours for 1500 an acrea. Has anyone received royalties checks. Antero said the well had been producing for a year but gave me some answer like they were working on it or something like that
Bill, I've only been a member of this site for a few months, and shortly before that, I first learned that I had inherited mineral rights. One thing I learned right away: DO NOT SELL YOUR MINERAL RIGHTS. You will get a lot of good advice on this forum.
Linda, did you sell your mineral rights, or did you sign a lease? If you sold your mineral rights, then you wouldn't get royalties. Maybe you meant to say that you signed a lease with them.
Thanks Robin. Exactly what I would have said. Robert, tell your grandparents that Doddridge County is a very good place to own mineral rights. Bill gave good advice there. Please read as much as you can on this site. Plenty of very good information here.
Yes we signed a lease. Sorry for the confusion. It is the Sweeney/Langfitt group
Robert, How much acreage do your grandparents own in Doddridge? Just would like to know what kind of money per acre they were offering. Once you sell your mineral property, it is gone forever. The company who offered, is probably going to resell or lease them at a later date. Just do not get in a hurry if your grandparents have a chance to lease. The lease process is a back and forth negotiating process. As Nancy, our resident info guru, said there is a lot of info on here to read and it will benefit you to do so. You need to know who and what you are dealing with when you lease. The bonus money and royalty is good but the language in a lease is what makes a good or bad lease. Leasing will give your family royalty if a well is drilled for years to come.
Linda, I hope you mean that you LEASED the mineral rights, if so then one day you should receive a royalty check. However if you SOLD YOUR RIGHTS as you indicated in your post than it's gone. We need for you to clarify. Royalty Checks from Antero have been taking 7-9 months after production start-up.
Arnold. We signed a lease. Thanks for your info. Are you part of the Sweeney Langfitt group?
Linda, Welcome to our forum, a lot of info comes out of this forum. The Sweeney Langfitt names does not ring a bell with me.
Thanks Arnold. I talked with a girl at Antero and she said she is “working on it”. My question is if the well has been producing for about a year do we get royalties for the 9 months. Thanks. Linda
Linda, Having a couple of wells that have been in production for several months and not receiving a division order as yet, I cannot answer your question. In most cases one will receive a division order before receiving your Royalty, If the person at Antero told you she was working on it, that could mean that she is working on the division order and that Linda is very good news. We are all holding our breath, a year is a long time.
Thanks Arnold. They really press you to sign the lease and then nothing. My sisters and I had given up. I hope you are right. Linda
Linda. Just curious, what district is your interest in?
Hi Arnold. It is the McElroy and grant district. I really don’t know what that means. Can you advise. Linda
Robert, Are you still out there? Sorry, but I think your post was taken in another direction. Please advise If you have any info we may be able to help you with.
Note to all: If you want to start another topic thread, all you have to do is this: Go to the top of this page and where you see +Add, click on it and type your topic there.
Linda (and anybody else), here is a place to go search for wells if you know the API number
https://apps.dep.wv.gov/oog/wellsearch_new.cfm
You can also search by operator and permit date.
The bad part is, that by WV law the operator had until the end of March 2014 to report any production for 2013. Then the state Office of Oil and Gas has until the end of August 2014 to get it in the database.
As I understand it, when they finally pay, they pay from the beginning of production. Maybe several months together.
You can ask the Doddridge assessor's office if they have any ideas.
Arnold is right about the division order coming first.
About division orders, make sure it is correct and also make sure that there is nothing strange about it. Sometimes a company tries to sneak terms into the division order, like wanting you to agree to pay costs, when that is not in your lease. There is a model form division order available free online from the National Association of Division Order Analysts http://www.nadoa.org/forms/div_ord.pdf that you can send in instead. There is a thread on this forum about that (recent thread, about Oklahoma but same idea). I had to do that once when a company tried to pull a fast one.
A lot involved with this.
Thanks nancy. What is the API no. Linda
API is American Petroleum Institute. They have a system of numbering of oil and gas wells. The first 2 digits signifies the state: 47 = West Virginia. The next 3 signify the county: 017 = Doddridge. The next 5 are an assigned number for the specific well, assigned by the state agency to the operator for the permit.
Since you say there is a well on your property there must be an API number on it. You can ask Antero for the API number.
This is a complicated process, to figure out all the aspects of oil and gas ownership. Please keep asking if you have questions. Some of us on this forum have been figuring it out for awhile and have at least some of the answers.
Nancy
It is less than 100 acres as I recall. I will find the specifics to confirm. But really I don't think it will matter too much at this point. Based on this thread alone, I think I have enough information to make my recommendation. I will advise my grandparents to NOT sell. They are not in desperate need of the money and I'd like for the land to stay in the family. Plus it seems like I want a lease and I want a well drilled.
Thanks to everyone for all of the help! It is greatly appreciated.
DT said:
Robert, How much acreage do your grandparents own in Doddridge? Just would like to know what kind of money per acre they were offering. Once you sell your mineral property, it is gone forever. The company who offered, is probably going to resell or lease them at a later date. Just do not get in a hurry if your grandparents have a chance to lease. The lease process is a back and forth negotiating process. As Nancy, our resident info guru, said there is a lot of info on here to read and it will benefit you to do so. You need to know who and what you are dealing with when you lease. The bonus money and royalty is good but the language in a lease is what makes a good or bad lease. Leasing will give your family royalty if a well is drilled for years to come.