I have a royalty interest in 8 vertical oil wells in Martin County, Texas. The operator, Scout Energy, has not paid any royalties for Gas or Gaseous Liquids since April 2020 production month, and then it was a negative royalty. Since that time, the monthly gas production amounts reported to TXRRC are highly suspect. They are reporting a fixed daily amount of gas production of 137.73 multiplied by the number of days in the month from then through 2022. From May 2022 through August 2021, they reported the disposition as 100% Flared, Code 4. Then in September 2021, they reported zero disposition. Since last month, there was a retroactive correction on TXRRC website changing the disposition for September 2021 to March 2022 from zero to 100% Disposition 2, Gas delivered by transmission pipeline. Still, there has been no payment for this Gas, current or retroactive, even with gas prices now above $4.00/mcf.
I have seen similar TXRRC Production Query reports for neighboring leases operated by Scout where the monthly production numbers are an invariable number multiplied by number of days in the month, and with zero disposition.
Has anybody else experienced this reckless accounting and extended nonpayment of royalties for gas by Scout? Have you confronted Scout with a Certified demand letter?