Too much time today spent on research and screenshots so I don’t forget. I am an absolute newbie. Early this year I received a letter from Jay-Bee to lease mineral rights. I never acted upon the offer, no signature. Recently I received a letter from Antero with an offer of $300 total sign on bonus, 15% royalties, which I (inadequately) negotiated to $500 and 17%. This is the description in the letter: County Tyler, District Meade, Surface Tax Map/ Parcel Unknown parcel west of 6-10-26, gross acres 4.10593, Net Acres 0.00855. I know a wee bit more once finding this site, but already signed the lease with the negotiated amounts. The Landsman gave me advice to accept the counter offer, stating that they could come back with a higher bonus sign on but lower percentage than I had countered. My first question is, how much can a landsman be trusted? They act on behalf of the interest of the oil and gas companies, from what I gather. So would his unsolicited advice be proper and trustworthy? I do not have the means to hire a lawyer. I do not have contact with my sister or cousins who likely received the same letter. I also think they must have received a letter earlier, as I did, from Jay-Bee. If they signed with Jay-Bee and I never responded, could I be forced into pooling with Jay-Bee? Or did Antero research that prior to sending me an offer? I have so many questions, some may be moot because I signed the lease and they have received it. I wish there were a manual of all the things to consider, there’s too much to know. Is this of concern to me with the net acres I have ? Or is it too little to worry over? I didn’t know to negotiate the royalties clauses. I didn’t know to strike out the first right of refusal. I didn’t know anything, just went on intuition to negotiate the little that I did. Again, can’t afford a lawyer.
Also, I’ve read that Antero does not sign leases with no deductions anymore. Is that accurate? I’m just curious, since I didn’t know to negotiate anything other than the sign on bonus and the percentage.
How can they know the net acres when it’s an unknown parcel west of 6-10-26? There’s no other description of the parcel.
Just from experience, I’m not sure I would do any business with Jay-Bee right now. Antero…way back when, I also renegotiated my bonus and my percent. Don’t be afraid to do that. I tried to be reasonable. Their pay out/royalties currently seem to be better than Jay-Bee. Try to reach out to Kyle Nutall on here. If I thought I had enough clout, I would hire him in a heartbeat. He often gives very good advice on this sight, and there is also a female attorney who is helpful as well. I’m like you, so many questions. My leases are tied to Tyler County W.Va.
I think it was 2012 when my parents first were notified of owning mineral rights in West Virginia. None of us had any knowledge about the process and the wording on the contracts only confused us more. At the time, it was a crash course in learning. Contracts still make my head spin.
There is a lady attorney that posts here. I’m sorry don’t recall her name. She has posted a lot of good information too.
My sisters and I have used Kyle Nuttall 304-473-1403, for almost 10 years as our attorney. We all live far from West Virginia. He and his office staff have been very helpful. His fees are very reasonable. Even though our portions of mineral rights are very tiny, it is comforting to know we weren’t taken advantage of.
I would suggest finding an oil/gas attorney and speak with them. It doesn’t hurt to talk with any attorneys. Knowledge is power.
Before we found Kyle, my cousin used an attorney from the cooperation he had retired from and the fees were split between 7 of us. It was a corporate attorney and the fees were high. The attorney was very helpful as none of us knew anything. It was an expensive learning experience. My siblings and I had never had need of an attorney before this.
Hi Debra, sorry for the late reply!! I wrote too much and didn’t use paragraphs so I think my questions overwhelmed people. It was a lot to read! Thank you for your reply.
I had two leases sent to me from Jay-Bee, I didn’t act on either of them. This was way before I received anything from Antero.
Then recently I had a lease offer from Antero who I did negotiate the bonus sign on and the percentage.
I didn’t know to negotiate the TERMS of the percentage so since I had already signed the lease before posting my questions, it’s too late for that.
I also think since I signed the lease before posting my questions, it’s too late to look into a lawyer.
So actually, my questions are after the fact.
Since I did not act on Jay-Bee at all, is there a chance I would be forced into a pool with relatives who might have responded to Jay-Bee? I cannot ask my relatives.
I already signed with Antero, it’s a done deal (dang it) so I wondered - would Antero have researched that prior to offering the lease?
Or could the lease be null and void if 75% of my relatives (I don’t know how many received an offer) signed with Jay-Bee, while I later signed with Antero?
Many times I’ve seen to check with your landsman to ask questions. Mine offered advice on accepting the counter offer from Antero. So my question on this is; how much can I trust a landsman? Even though it’s a moot point now.
Hi Sylvia! Sorry for the late reply and thank you for yours. I wrote so much i think a lot of details were lost in the massive paragraph I wrote. I have already signed with Antero, so the questions are after the fact and I would think too late to contact an attorney.
But the questions I enumerated for Debra, one was possibly a good one to find an answer for, regarding having ignored Jay-Bee and later going with Antero.
I have a sister and some cousins who all likely received offers, probably from both, and I am not in contact with any of them. IF they signed with Jay-Bee, will I be forced into a pool with them with Jay-Bee? Or could I be?
They don’t know I ignored Jay-Bee, and that I signed with Antero, and we don’t talk anyway, so I have no way of knowing who, if anyone, my sister and cousins signed with. I’m concerned about this, and maybe this would be good to look into with an attorney.
Thank you for the references. I will look into this. I wish I had called someone prior to signing the lease the ONLY thing I did was negotiate the sign on bonus and royalty percentage.
Not Debra, but as I understand it each mineral owner can act independently of the others so whatever your other relatives did won’t affect your lease. If they are force pooled, it would be with whichever company brought the issue to the WV Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, who issues the pooling order (again, as I understand it) and if Antero is involved, they would likely be the one bringing this to the Commission.
What exactly is your question? You signed a lease, no way of getting out of that. What your siblings do, have no impact on you. Do not hire a lawyer, you own 0.00855 acres, by the time you pay the lawyer youll be in the hole on it. Just sit back and wait to see if they drill a well, and with 0.00855 acres, dont expect life changing money, will likely be around $25 a month
100% agree with @Bob77 - I think you’d be lucky if you’re getting $25 a month.
We own hundreds of mineral interests, and to be frank this is a really small interest, you did a good job to get a $500 bonus on this one because that’s probably more than it’s worth.
One last thing is you have to separate the lease holder from the operator. In this particular area, JB and Antero are competing for leasehold interests but only one of them will be drilling the well - and you do not have any influence on that. So you should just sit back and see what happens.
There’s a lot to respond to here, but you got a good bonus payment considering how small your net acres are. If I did the math right in my head you’re at around $50,000 per acre. I’m a lawyer, so mathematicians can feel free to chime in.
I wouldn’t worry about the royalty. With about 8/1000 of an acre a 1% increase in royalty is going to make a difference of pennies, maybe dimes, per month.
You could have gotten some other changes to the lease but they’re just not going to matter much. You got the main thing you needed to get in this situation–a good bonus.
You won’t be forced into pooling with Jay-Bee. Sort of. The lease you signed with Antero is the lease that will control your oil and gas rights. If Antero sells your lease to Jay-Bee, Jay-Bee will have to honor the terms of the lease you signed. You can’t change the terms of a lease by selling it. If Antero does sell your lease to Jay-Bee, Jay-Bee could end up doing the pooling. They’ll still have to honor the terms of the lease you signed.
Antero does give a no deductions clause still. Again, with your net mineral interest it’s not going to make an enormous difference.
That “unknown parcel west of 6-10-26” stuff is weird. I’ve never seen that before. Maybe it’s a small chunk of land that never got taxed? I’ve seen some weird things with tax maps, and that could be it. There may be a gap or gore (overlap) issue. I’m just guessing, though.
Thanks everyone for your replies and answers. I’m glad to hear that I did well with negotiating the sign on bonus and the % royalties. Since I can’t do anything more having already signed the lease, that helps to know.
The National Association of Royalty Owners. They are a nationwide non-profit that is dedicated to the advocacy for and education of mineral owners. They hold conventions across the country, have webinars, teach classes, etc. www.naro-us.org
With my minimal ownership, is it worth my while to join NARO east? I saw the introductory membership is $75, the standard is $150. Would I stand to gain on my situation to join?
Will I be taxed on the property listed on the lease? It is weird to me too, that the word “unknown” is used in its identification. But having mineral rights means there is land associated with them, so it dawned on me I may be taxed on the bit of property.
The introductory is for a year. You can try it and see if it meets your needs. The membership gives you access to the NARO library of webinars on useful topics for mineral owners, the mineral management manual, access to classes for mineral owners, conventions, etc. Networking with other minerals is often a very powerful way to learn what is going on in your area, who is leasing, who to watch out for, etc.
You will be taxed on the wells if they are active and producing, but its takes a few years for the WV tax dept to catch up. They do a tax based on the prediction of the future values of the wells, based on past production. The royalties are of course considered income ad that’s taxed by the feds as regular income and the state you live in will tax it too. If you live out of state, Wv still will tax you on that income. I’m in DC, so for 2025 I had to pay income tax to wv and to DC on that royalty income. But DC takes what I pay to WV off the top, so in DC I did not pay tax on the full amount. It’s very complicated and even Turbo Tax was a bit confused.
Yes, in some situations it’s better to sell the mineral rights outright, cause that’s taxed as a capital gain and not income. It all depends on you tax bracket and other sources of income, and what you can get to sell the rights outright. Its tricky, if you got the rights and in the ten of your ownership…the value increased 100 percent…if you sell the rights, then its heavily taxed, BUT if you die and the heirs sell them…the value of the wells gets it current value for you when the previous owner died…so if you sell fairly quickly…then your capital gain is low.
