Antero sent me a letter stating I have an inherited interest of gas mineral rights in 53.00000 gross acres of land in the Ellsworth District of Tyler County WV. And they want me to sign a Flat Fee Paid-Up oil and gas lease for a 200.00 signing fee and a 12.5 % royalties. The prospect is listed as Rabbit Ears
The 53.00000 is 2 separate tracts of land in 2 different locations…one tract is 28.00000 acres and the other is 25.00000 Only the gross amount of the acreage is listed in the contract. There is no net acreage listed, which I’ve read online is listed in some contracts. I am trying to ask the man representing Antero what is the amount of my net acreage.
We called the land agent in the letter and this is a legitimate inheritance. However, this is all new to our family and we have a few questions.
Is it worth pursuing guidance from a lawyer to get a better contract/royalties?
Since it is 2 different tracts of land Antero wants to lease…should there be 2 lease contracts for each tract of land?
There is no net acreage listed on the contract. Are they offering me royalties on the gross acreages of 53.0000 or should I determine what the net acreage is for my share if I sign (I believe there may be other people involved with this claim)? This is what the lease says: “Or is the net amount covered in the wording of the contract in section 1. Leasing…for the purpose of this lease, including determining the amount of delayed rentals, royalties and shut-in royalties hereunder, said land shall be deemed to contain 53.000 gross acres whether it actually contains more or less.”
Wow…it sounds almost as if you are on the same track as I may be. I just signed with Antero for 5 years. I negotiated on my own for a bit more than what you were offered…that is their standard offering. You can do much better and they know this. My piece of the pie is quite small with quite a few owners, so I did not “get” what I initially re-bargained for. GO FOR IT…if they want it bad enough they will offer you more if you ask. I was not a happy camper when a contract showed up in my mailbox… they just send out without much conversation…they assume you will sign almost anything. And hoping I don’t get screwed too much on this contract either. Everything is taxed twice and you have to pay Tyler county too. Often times the royalty checks don’t cover what is paid out in taxes. Trying to be optimistic and REALLY hope Biden does not change things up. Stay glued to this website. There is lots of good advice often given here for free and you have to be very observant. Also, once you sign a contract, the land person is out of the picture. You will need to ask him/her WHO to contact about how you want your royalties handled. They should provide all of that for you. My guy did. My experience has been both good and bad. These companies sometimes lose your information or it gets sent off to another location and then sits for months. EQT was very bad bout this. So far Antero has been OK with what I have needed and Jay-Bee is good. I was told too by Antero they have to have at least 75% signed to be able to start production. Lawyers are good if you have lots of land and many have had great success at the bargaining table.
Thank you Debra for your advice, sharing your story. This just comes out of blue and having mineral rights in West Virginia never even entered our thoughts…though our families are from there and we love the state!
Blessings, hope all goes well with you and your family!
Debra had some good advice. You can usually get a bonus in the range of $3000/acre to $4000/acre in Tyler County right now. A lot of times the $200 flat fee they offer is more than that per acre, but every once in a while we see one that’s less. Do a quick calculation and make sure you’re not getting ripped off. Also, you can probably get $500 flat fee per lease. Ask them for $1000 flat fee and see what you can get. You should be able to get 18% royalties, and make sure to get gross proceeds (don’t let them deduct post-production costs from the royalties). Also make sure to get a No Warranty of Title clause (that’s a promise that you own the minerals) or at least a Special Warranty of Title that doesn’t make any promises. Also get a Hold Harmless clause. Also ask them for a Marcellus Shale Formation Limit. Finally, they probably made an offer to buy the rights from you. If you’re under 1/10 of an acre, it probably makes sense to sell if you can get a good price, at least double what they originally offer. The royalties just won’t add up to much over time if your interest is that small.
Thanks again Kyle for the advice to both parties. I took a screen shot of your response. I do not think my contract included those above-mentioned clauses. I was advised earlier in my posts if the acreage was not that significant not to think about hiring any attorneys.This latest deal with Antero seems to fit previous discussions. Then the other advice was to hold on to my small piece vs selling…and struggled a bit with a decision. My heart told me to hold on to it, while receiving one pretty good offer to buy. Here’s what I did …Antero called me the first approach…the land man sent me a nice little pre-paid contract, which I immediately rejected…not so much the wording…more of course the sign on bonus and percent of royalties. I’m retired now and on a pension. Once I rejected the first offer, a couple months passed with no response, which really suggested they weren’t worth my time/effort. As it turns out, the email address I used to reply was off by one letter, so land guy never saw my response. We finally got that cleared up, but part of my response was asking IF their offer for $200 to sign on was a type-o and did they mean $2,000? Lol!!! As professional as I try to conduct myself, I also expressed I felt that offer was a bit offensive. They were VERY quick to respond and like magic, another contract arrived…just a wee bit more to sign on, and a 3% hike in the original royalty offering. I honestly felt that was the best I could do given all the advice. Maybe I should have held out after reading this reply. We all know there must be “something” there with Antero reaching out to folks. I feel very blessed to have been included as a recipient of an inheritance, but there’s SO many people involved, my royalties right now do not match what I have to pay in taxes to Tyler County. I DO have a question…even though I signed a contract, can I still sell my share at any time? Antero says they have to have 75% signed on to start drilling. Of course that says wait and see how it goes. Not a gambler per say. Thanks again to all who offer advice. Much appreciated.