I received an oil and gas lease agreement about a month ago and First off, I didn’t know this land existed, secondly, I do not know anything about drilling, fracking etc. The agreement is difficult to comprehend without an attorney but the gist I’m getting from it is that it’s a 5 year long thing with the land acreage at 114.5. $2000 per acre with 15% royalty proceeds. The land is in WV Grant district, Wetzel County. The company is EQT production Co. their attorney contacting me is through Percheron energy. I guess my question is where do I start? Contact them first and then get an attorney from WV? I’m honestly clueless here.
Our minerals are located in Texas , and I know nothing of WV. But I can tell you that the best money we ever invested was on a good O&G attorney. And I use the word invested, not spent. Do not sign anything you do not understand, as their terms are usually not in your best interest.
My Dad used Windham Law Offices in Harrisville, WV. That’s in Ritchie Co, a couple counties over.
Our family has real estate and mineral rights in Wetzel County. Using a good attorney makes a HUGE difference. We recently used Chris Blair out of Weirton and we’re beyond pleased with what he negotiated for us. He almost doubled the signing bonus - but the terms for when the drilling starts is where he really earned his money. Don’t attempt to do it yourself.
I’m editing to add that we told them (Tug Hill) who our attorney was and that he would be contacting them. Chris took over from there.
In Grant District of Wetzel county you should be able to negotiate $4000/net acre or more! EQT can usually be talked into 16-18% royalty. BUT you should demand a “Gross Proceeds Royalty clause” for gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs) and oil which states that you will not be charged any “post production costs or expenses”. You should also ask for a “No Warranty of Title” clause or a "Special Warranty of Title"clause which keeps you from having to pay back a bonus payment if they later decide you actually don’t own the minerals after they have paid you the signing bonus. Did they state in their offer what your “net acres” are–which is important since WV minerals are many times split between many different parties through inheritance and partial reservations or sales from back into the 1890s in Wetzel County. Also, if they gave you the Tax Map Parcel (TMP) number, you can look that up at the following link to see where it is. WV Property Viewer If you would share that TMP with the group, one of us could figure out if EQT has a new well permit that would involve the property. (That is more complicated to look up–but doable.) It is a good idea to get an Oil and Gas Attorney to negotiate for you.
Do you know the county? I think it’s wetzel county and proctor district. I would need the county. The numbers are district then map then parcel. And yes all my eqt leases are 17.5 of gross and the new one I’m trying to get 5000 on the bonus. Go for a five year no renewal as well. My last lease was that way I have now leased this property 3 times in 5 years. Still no permits or pad done. The can lease it every 5 years forever and suit me. Btw I have 1.12 nma on the sizemore well 5h and my last revenue check was 1078 dollars at 17.5 percent of gross.
Darren, it’s Marion County. Sorry, I should have stated it. Thanks for any info.
That is Albert C. Woods. Parcel 24-12-0039-0001-0000 address Bartholomew 33617 90.6 acres ( plat 986-1034) it’s kinda NW part of the county. Eqt has three wells permitted in that area. Jones, wright, and Elliot well pads. Good luck
Thank you for the info on the 3 permits. Appreciate your help.
Thanks for all the advice. I don’t live in WV so I’m trying to find an atty online.
West Virginia oil and gas attorney here. Don’t feel obligated to even contact me if you don’t want to. Here’s my advice. Your minimum signing bonus should be $4,000/acre. I’ve been arguing with an Antero rep about a lease up in Wetzel County that’s at $4,000/acre and they don’t want to budge on that number for some reason, but you should be able to get EQT up higher than that. I’d counter at $7,000/acre and see what I could get. I might even counter at $8,000/acre if I was feeling spry. Settle somewhere in between $4K and $8K. You might be surprised at how far you can push them. Also, get 18% royalty, and a Gross Proceeds clause. Counter with 20% to give yourself some room to negotiate. Also, get a No Warranty of Title clause, an Indemnification clause, and language that says you have no knowledge of old wells or leases. That takes care of most of your liability issues, at least as far as we can predict them from today. Also get a Marcellus Shale Formation Limit. That makes the lease only applicable to that formation. If someone wants to come back for the Utica later, they have to sign a new lease with you and you’d be surprised at how much they’ll give you for the signing bonus for just one formation. Good luck, and have fun!
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Well, I learned a couple of days ago that with all the descendants on this acreage, most of it has been sold off through the generations and I’m left with 3/10 ths of an acre. So no big payout for me. The atty that’s handling this lease said I’m lucky to be getting offered a lease agreement. Also he said that he isn’t in a position to negotiate just finding and contacting relatives. Thanks for the advice though.
I just got an offer from Antero for a brand new lease, not an amended lease, of my fractional mineral rights in Green District (76.242 acres gross, .00540 acres net). They are offering $250.00 & 14% royalty for the lease or $500.00 to purchase outright. I am new to this area, does this offer sound “fair”? I see posts on this site saying $4000.00 per acre & 20% should be the starting point for negotiating a lease. Any help will be appreciated.
Hello Heir1 and welcome to the forum!
Antero is saying that you have 54/1000 of an acre (0.0054 acres net) in ownership in the 76.242 Acre parcel. Are you sure the net acres you stated are correct. Do you know anything about what fraction of this property that you actually own? Have you researched the title chain coming down to you or have any records to that effect? Antero’s numbers would indicate that you only have a little over 7/100,000 fractional interest in the property. $4000.00/net acre for your 0.0054 net acres = $21.60, so $250.00 is actually a pretty good offer - around $40,000.00/net acre! If you want to lease you can always ask them for $500 to lease and ask for 20% GROSS PROCEEDS royalty on oil and gas and natural gas liquids. See if they will negotiate. This is such a small net acres that there is certainly not potential for significant royalty income. For example if the entire 76.242 ac parcel was included in a 640 Acre drilling unit at 18% gross proceeds royalty and your 7/100,000 fractional interest in the property, your payment decimal would be about 0.0000015. So if Antero sold $10,000,000.00 of O & G off the wells over a few years, your payout would be $15.01. IF you own more than the 0.0054 net acres you quoted, however, there would be higher potential.
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Correction I sure messed up my decimal reading! It is 54/10,000 of an acre! That will change all the figures down the line by a factor of 1/10th. Sorry about that!
Got an email from Antero today and it turns out that the offer letter had the wrong Gross Acres on it, it should have read 15.0 not 76.242 acres. So after figuring the percentages based on .0054 Net acres, the offered 14% royalty and a guess that the Unit acres will be 640, the royalties would only be $8.4375 mo. to start and then by the end of the second year they would decline to maybe $2.00 mo. I think I will counter with an offer of $750 to Buy or $500 & 20% to lease. Will see if they will up their offer above the initial amount. Don’t see how it could hurt.
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