Hello. Some family members and I inherited mineral rights in Greene County, PA. We were not aware of this until we were contacted by EQT with lease offers. Since none of us are familiar with this topic, I was hoping I could get some quick advice here. I did contact some lawyers in PA, but both said it wasn’t worth the money to get them involved because my share is so small (it could cost me more in legal fees than I would make from the lease). Here are the details of the lease:
-5 years
-38 acres
-My share is 2.5%
-$3500 lease signing bonus
-18% cost-free royalty (no post-production deductions)
Does this look reasonable? I just want to make sure we are getting a fair deal. Thank you!
If I’m reading this correctly you have about .95 of an acre? Where is your acreage? You may want to ask for more bonus money. Make sure the amendment says no deductions. If you can get others who haven’t yet signed in your acreage you may have more bargaining power that way.
I would see if the other heirs want to go in on attorney fees. Your percentage may be small, but 38 acres (assuming good production) will make a nice check for all of you as a group. That’s what our family did and we split the fees according to ownership percentage. We used Doug Clark out of Peckville, PA. He grew up in western PA and is very familiar in oil and gas. Very nice guy to work with.
Thank you! We did think about splitting attorney fees, but myself and my family members only inherited a total of 10% of these mineral rights (there are 4 of us and we each got 2.5%). The remaining 90% went to various organizations and charities that were in the owner’s will. So given that, the attorneys I spoke to said it wouldn’t be worth the money for the 4 of us to hire an attorney (because the fees could end up being more than we would make). But thank you for the advice, and I will definitely look into using Doug Clark if we do need an attorney!
Honestly, really depends on your situation as right now you have the most power to either negotiate OR sell. Unleased minerals with an operator offer on the table get the most money if you wanted to sell, probably 8-10k per acre - plus save on attorney fees. You can search for Pennsylvania Mineral buyers and probably find a couple to talk to and gauge offers (more contacts the better)