After 7 years of work, I have tracked down 3 horizontal wells on land that my grandfather owned and that my sisters and brother have inherited in Marshall County, WV. I am filing Affidavit of Heirship papers this week in Marshall County Courthouse. Does anyone know how long it takes for SWN to process paperwork or how long it typically takes for them to release funds? I am making an assumption that they knew we were heirs otherwise the funds wouldn’t have been held in suspense. I’m wondering if they owe us interest on the money they have been holding or damages for not trying to contact us. Also, does anyone know if 12.5 interest is the least amount of interest we will be paid for the royalty lease? We have an NPRI interest in the royalties. I have hired a law firm but I’m not sure about some of the information I’m getting from the “mineral people” who are not attorneys.
Bear in mind, this is a corporate land department we are talking about…could be a few months, could be a year. Many states allow for six months from the date of first production on any new wells which is SOP for many transfers within these corporations. Has to be said as well, an AOH may not meet their requirements and you’ll have to wait additionally for probate work by your attorney which can add 6-12 months. They certainly have been collecting interest on funds held in suspense, but they do not owe any of that to you nor any damages for making little to no effort to track you down, sadly; the ownness is on the mineral owner to have the proper documents filed of record with addresses. If you own a NPRI, then you do not get leased. There is an underlying lease by the mineral owner, which sounds like was 1/8th or 12.5%, and your interest is whatever carve out of the 12.5% you were conveyed. The reason the law firm has “mineral people” is precisely because they are attorneys and may or may not know what they are talking about.
Thank you for your response. I’m trying to understand the NPRI. I gather that we get no say as to if the land is leased or the amount of interest negotiated or the bonus monies. However, there are signed leases and my question is do we get the same interest on the royalties as the owner of the minerals negotiated on the lease? We inherited 1/2 of the royalties on the gas and oil. Thanks.
Yes, you should get the same royalty that the mineral owners negotiated for on the lease.
I think an interesting question would be which lease would she get? I’m assuming there are probably multiple owners leased out on your parcel, so some have better leases than others. Not sure what the legal ruling is here, but certainly would benefit the operator to give you the worst lease of the lot.
Would love to hear an answer if anybody knows
She wouldn’t get any of them
Say there were three mineral owners that signed new leases. They would all get deducted the same.
A – 15% - 6.25% = 8.75%
B – 18.75% - 6.25% = 12.50%
C – 20% - 6.25% = 13.75%
She gets 6.25% or one-half of 12.50% in any case.
Now, maybe you’re wondering if the conveyance was written something to the effect of one-half of royalties on the current lease or if there are subsequent leases, one-half of whatever royalty is taken on those leases. She would then get one-half of all the royalties of leases within her MI %. If she was conveyed one-half on 100% MI then:
A – 15% - 7.50% = 7.50%
B – 18.75% - 9.375% = 9.375%
C – 20% - 10% = 10%
She gets (7.50% / 3) + (9.375% / 3) + (10% / 3).
If she was conveyed one-half on 33.33% MI (owner A) then:
A – 15% - 7.50% = 7.50%
B – 18.75% - 0% = 18.75%
C – 20% - 0% = 20%
She gets 7.50% / 3.
It depends on who conveyed it and how it was written in the conveyance. Some NPRIs would be extinguished with the expired lease or even after a term. Typically, it will be the top scenario, because the mineral owners don’t even have to be leased for her to get the 6.25%. Love NPRI math on a Friday!
Really appreciate the detailed response and the Friday numbers! Lol
I’ve never seen an NPRI extinguished in a West Virginia conveyance. Most of the time what you see is that The rights to lease separate from the rights to collect royalties, which means that those leasing the land will collect least bonuses but will have no rights to any royalties. We own a number of minerals where we own the NPRI but are stuck with the lease that the executive rights owner signed.
So the question is in this situation let’s say you own 100% of the NPRI on a certain tract, but the rights to negotiate the lease went to three different heirs. They each negotiated different leases with one getting 12.5%, another getting 15%, and another getting 20%. Would you get the average between those? That’s what I would imagine but I don’t know for sure
Yep, that’s how it would go assuming it’s not fixed. Credit to @TennisDaze for this from another post:
Really good read - thanks and really appreciated! People like you are why this site is to valuable - May God Bless your endeavors!
This is the language in my grandfather’s deed: “reserves and excerts and saves 1/2 of all money that may be received for the development and production of gas underlying said property and 1/16th of all monies that may be received for the development and production of oil underlying all that portion of land”. My understanding is this language makes it a Non-Participating Royalty Interest. I also am told 1/16th is the same as 1/2. Do you agree? My thinking is we’re entitled to half of all the money produced on this land for either gas or oil plus 1/2 of the royalty interest sought by the owner of the lease. The owners listed on the map show that Consolidated Coal is the owner of the Lease for these parcels of land in the Cameron District. There are three horizontal wells, 051-01584, 051-01608, 051-01580, on are parcels of land which are pooled. 051-01584 has 294.05 acres; 051-1608 has 555.418; and 051-1580 has 366.108. There are 5 other horizontal wells besides ours that lead to SWN’s pad on Fork Ridge. Is it a correct assumption that these other 5 wells make up the pooled acreage and that we all get a certain percentage of the money produced by these wells based on the # of acres we contribute to the pool? If it is indeed a non-participating royalty interest then my understanding is that we bear no cost for the production of either the oil or gas. I’ve read all the posts and frankly they left me confused with all the “supposing”. Thanks for any clarification you can give me.
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