I received a lease offer from Northeast Energy today for 70 acres that my Grandfather retained. I am one of a few grandchildren to receive the lease so I am sure that may complicate things. The offer is $2500 per acre with a lease payment of 15% net at wellhead. This appears to be on the low end of the current scale and I was wondering if obtaining a local attorney is worth the money or just discuss a counter offer with the landman. Parcel is TM: 10 Parcels: 10, 10.1. I am new to this so any help is appreciated. Thanks
Hello, GBrock.
Can you double check your provided parcels? 16-10-10 exists, but its only a 70X150 lot. 10.1 does not appear to exist.
$2500/ac and 15G seems to be their starting point. Be very careful with “at the wellhead” language -
If you can confirm the parcels I can provide a little more information.
The Parcels that I list were as written in the contract. It is in the Lincoln district of Marion County and I was able to find the listings on mapwv dot gov. Thanks
In Lincoln District (No. 11), parcels are labeled as: Tax Map Parcel 11–10–10 and Tax Map Parcel 11–10–10.1
Confirm Your Net Mineral Acres (NMA). Don’t rely only on gross acreage (e.g., 70 acres total).
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What matters is your net mineral acreage (NMA):
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Example:
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- 70 gross acres. You might only own 1.25 acres, or even as little as 0.00425 acre Small Interests May Not Justify Legal Costs. If your ownership is extremely small (like 0.00425 NMA), hiring an attorney may cost more than the value of your interest. Legal review is still ideal—but not always economical. The area has a long history with oil & gas development, including older wells and changing ownership over generations. Because of that, titles can be fragmented. Ownership can be split among many heirs
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Read up on the recent pooling law language. You may be able to get more royalty through the pooling or at least get the offer on the lease up. The draft lease will not be in your favor. Good to get an attorney to look at it if you plan to lease.