In the past several months I have noticed that Anadarko has begun charging for transportation, gathering and compression. We have had a no cost lease with Anadarko since 2001. When our family contacted Anadarko about these charges , the company said their attoneys stated that these charges were ok to charge mineral owners now due to some old court case. Have anyone else had this experience with Anadarko???
This is a result of the Chesapeake It all depends on the exact wording in the royalty clause and in all of your lease. Look at the royalty clause. If it uses the phrase "market value at the well", then you can be charged transportation, gathering, marketing, processing and other costs regardless of other lease terms. The Texas courts have ruled that the phrase "market value at the well" means that the company can take the ultimate sale price and then deduct the costs back to the well to determine the value at the well. Adding a clause that states that no costs can be deducted is not effective if the price is determined at the well. If your lease uses the term market value at the point of sale or some similar description, then you cannot be charges costs up to the point of sale. All the oil companies are doing this.
How should the royalty clause read in order to make sure it is a no cost lease?