Pleasants County, WV oil & gas discussion group. Share your experience regarding lease bonus, royalty rates, drilling activity, and oil & gas news.
I'm hearing that $1000/ac and 14% royalty is standard in Pleasants County right now. Is that your experience?
That would be sweet! I only have some old producing wells from many years ago... only recieve a check every few months for anywhere from $30 to $60 on oil production. I recently signed an amendment with EQT on some acreage in Ritchie Co. it currently has an older gas well from the 1980s that still produces a check every 3 months. I could only get them up to $200 per acres for a signing bonus. But of course this was not a new lease, it was just to add the language for the shale drilling that hopefully will come.
Those figures are close. Maybe 15%. And those are for the middleman who will sell your lease to a drilling company, so prices must be higher by someone. Negotiating with one company (middleman), but lease is so bad, we may or may not be able to work a deal.
My client is hearing from a middleman on a CHK lease that $1000/ac and 14% is the going rate right now. I'm surprised because CHK is known for liberal spending in order to tie up property. I just wanted to see if that was really the case right now. Thanks for the comments.
I, as well as my siblings and cousins, used to recieve royalties from (oil)mineral rights left to us by our great grandfather, in Pleasants County, near St. Mary's. We haven't seen any checks though, for many years, and have had no explanation. The checks were distributed by a famiy member who died many years back. Does any one know where to start on finding out what happened with this property?
Hi Grayson,
First off, if no royalties have been paid in years, then the lease has probably expired, so most likely nobody holds the right to develop the minerals.
That said, there are a number of ways you could find out who holds the lease if it's still in effect. If you have the old royalty checks, look for the name of the company on them. There's a good chance they have either sold the interest to another company, or the wells have stopped producing, but they'll be able to tell you who they sold it to.
You can also spend some time doing research in the courthouse. Check for leases in you great grandfather's name. The record room ladies will be able and happy to help with this.
That's what comes to mind immediately. If that doesn't work out, you may just have to do a title search on the property and figure the whole thing out. There will be records of some sort at the courthouse. It's possible the interest was sold for back taxes. Usually in these situations the person distributing money is also the person paying taxes.
Kyle
Grayson,
You might also want to check with WV Unclaimed Property at www.wvsto.com. If checks have been sent out and returned that is where they end up. You would need to search by the person's name that was recieving the checks. I found some of my father's old checks from Dominion.
Carol Marsh
Thanks Carol and Kyle. I'll probably need to make a trip to the courthouse.
GC thornton.
I have heard from a couple sources that the Pleasants County clerks office is now packed like Tyler, Wetzel etc. Apparently, some companies are interested in the Utica, not the Marcellus because of better than expected production result across the river in Ohio. Does anyone know anything about this? Does anyone have any ideas of price per acre. Does anyone know which companies might be involved?
Jim White, I've been doing some research today, and I'm of the opinion that in Pleasants County, where the Utica and the Marcellus are both good plays, that people should be expecting $5,000/acre bonus and 20% royalties. The o/g companies aren't going to offer that, but it's worth it.
Kyle. Thanks. My concern is that although we are in discussion with a particular company for the going rate for Marcellus in Tyler, we will loose out if the Utica is big in Tyler. How common is it to lease Marcellus and reserve the Utica. How loud do they scream....Pleasants is our "big" county with a lot of acreage. Hoping your estimates hold true for the future.
Jim White, leasing only one formation is not terribly common here in WV for two reasons. One, people aren't asking for it (mainly because they don't realize they can). Two, lots of people have small, divided interests. Someone with a large, undivided interest could probably negotiate that. It might take time, but I would love to see that happen here in WV. The Marcellus, the Utica, and the Upper Devonian are all formations that are known and could produce in the future in WV. There are other formations down there, too, that could become producers in the next few decades with advances in technology. The leases we're signing now are going to be in effect for generations, most likely, especially if we give rights to all formations. They'll produce the Marcellus, then the Utica, then something else after that.
Pleasants in particular has proven good Marcellus production and very likely good Utica production. Pretty much anything along the Ohio river west to Parkersburg is that way.
Apparently someone is drilling a Marcellus horizontal called the Colvin well in Lafayette district of Pleasants. Also, apparently people are looking to that well to determine what is possible in Pleasants. Has anyone heard of that well or know of it?
Anyone have any updated figures on bonus offers/royalties in Pleasants? It starting to generate some interest.
Can anyone provide company names that are leasing in Pleasants? I just purchased some mineral rights and am interested in leasing them. Thanks.
What District?
I'm not sure of the district. Is that listed on the deed? I don't have that with me. I will check when I get home from work tonight.
2 Tracks in Union District. Do you have any names of companies leasing in Pleasants?
Bradley
Noble is leasing in Pleasants and I hear that Antero may be interested since Union is closest to their pipeline. Can't hurt to call and check.