I recently received a UPS package out of the blue from a company who would like to lease my acres. Signing it would include a 200$ signing bonus and a % of royalties on any future gas and oil production for approx 5 years. I feel like 200$ signing fee for 1 approx 1 acre is low compared to what I read on other posts and located on the internet. Also, according to what I’ve read royalties are hard to come by and company seems to be in litigation due to nonpayment of these. For anyone else who has received a lease like this recently, I would like to hear how you have handled it and if I should go about trying to negotiate for a higher signing bonus.
If you own 1 net mineral acre then yes this is too low. $200 is typical of a flat rate bonus for having a smaller interest. Often if you divide the 200 by the actual net mineral acres, you are getting significantly more than market bonus. It’s a way for the operators to incentivize people to sign, otherwise the bonus would be too low to waste the time to go get it notarized.
I also received a ups package yesterday June 13, 2025 as an heir to mineral rights in Wetzel County.
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I’m awaiting a letter from when I was contacted about being an heir a month ago, but still haven’t received anything.
I just found out that I inherited a very small amount of land in wetzel country WVa. And the company sent me what they called a best and final offer of $250 sign on bonus plus 18% of the gross royalties I don’t know if that’s good or not because I know absolutely nothing about this
If you only have a small amount of acreage, then that may be your best offer. Read up on the recent pooling law.