I am non -consent on a well in ND. I received my first royalty check yesterday. I have an AFE that shows the potential costs of the well. Will the operator send me actual costs? Also it appears that deductions are coming out of the check. Is it not a cost free royalty?
Thank you.
Kevin
You will have to get a payout statement from the operator to find out how much they claim the well cost, but you are never going to know unless you audit them. They are not supposed to take out charges from the 16% but mine does it also, this will also be taken care of when I audit my operator or you could raise cain and or possibly have a lawyer send a letter now. I consider it highly likely that the operator will not volunteer when your well is paid off and recovered the penalty because if you never ask, the default is they have your money.
In addition my operator has applied the risk penalty to surface equipment which i will challenge and I don't think they will fight over after I do because how much risk is there in surface equipment? They are also charging me to use the equipment that I will be part owner of and the cost of which they are taking out of the 84%, double dipping. Like I said, it's all going to come out in the wash at the audit. The audit will certainly pay for itself in mine and my brother's case.