I received a certified letter from a company wanting to discuss options on mineral rights in Wetzel County/Proctor District. I am 68 and I had no idea of this situation until opening and reading this letter. My questions is what do I need to do to proceed with this situation of 33+ acres that I know nothing about. I live in Oklahoma so I am at a disadvantage in trying to adequately research this, but I want to make sure of a fair valued option. The initial offer ($1550 lease/$2350 sell) discussed of these rights was not that substantial so any type of representation would most likely eat it all up, so do you just capitulate?
John, Wetzel County, WV has a free online recorder of deeds site: http://www.wetzelcountywv.us/ You could pull deeds to see what the interest is that you own. Also, WV has a free well GIS site that you could use to eyeball your acreage. WVDEP Oil&Gas Well Information. One offer in the mail is not always the best offer. A brokerage such as CX-Energy would expose your oil and gas interest to thousands of buyers, often bringing back multiple higher offers. Oil and gas ownership in WV is messy and time consuming to figure out.
The offer for both leasing and buying are ridiculously low. I do NOT know Proctor District, but it is very common for parcels to sell from 4,000.00 / acre - 6,000.00. Equally, though down from the highs, I suspect a lease should be double what is offered and have a significant royalty.
Have you been paying property taxes for the parcel?
I have a 1/8 gas lease held by production since2003 and eqt is offering money to pool more acres. Are the old 1/8 leases now getting gross on royalties or net for any new wells. They offered 1200 per acre and 15% of the net but I don’t trust eqt with production costs. Is it better to stay with 1/8 of gross? I’m not sure how the laws are now on this matter. Need some help please.
I would strongly urge you to hire an Attorney to represent you in this negotiation, especially with EQT involved.
15% net is still low, but in addition, there is not determination as to the expenses they can claim. If you Google Richards vs. EQT you will get some insight into the way EQT manipulates royalties and how the mineral owner his severely hurt.
Yes I have seen eqt really manipulates post a pre production costs and it seems they would rather tie things up in court rather than pay. If I’m understanding the present wording of the law under the old 1/8 royalty leases those costs can not be deducted from my royalty. So I would be better off with the 12.5% gross vs. 15% of net correct?
Also this is an amendment to pool acreage so that’s the only reason they’re offering a bonus at all because it’s held under production from an old well. The laws change and eqt is suing the state on the last ruling. Gross proceeds are best as eqt does use manipulated costs and made up sister companies to inflate those costs.