Oil & gas discussion group for land and mineral rights in West Virginia. Ask questions or share your experiences related to mineral and land rights in West Virginia including law and legal questions, accounting and taxes, regulations, surface use issues, easements, and anything else affecting land and mineral rights in West Virginia.
Hmmm. too quiet in here. What's going on with Marcellus production in areas of the state that already have high volumes of existing shallow wells? I have a property leased right now that is in decline after several years of production. How do I go about spurring interest in deep well exploration in my aera?
What county? I understand that the companies are mainly interested in wet gas.
We own some land from a lease we inherited back in 1986, now antero resources is contacting us about a pooling clause, what should we do.
Doesn't seem to be much going on here?
I'm an attorney and negotiate quite a few leases. I figured I'd update people as to some of the numbers I've seen recently on signed leases. Doddridge and Harrison County leases should get up to $2,500/acre and 18% net, 15% gross if you're able to negotiate gross. Tyler County bonuses are fluctuating a lot; one guy I talked to said he got Antero and JayBee into a bidding war recently and got them up to $4,500/acre (I have no way of verifying that, of course), I've seen offers of $1,500 and leases of $3,000/acre, and have negotiated up to 18% net. In Tyler, Wetzel, and Marshall counties the judge is forcing the companies to pay $4,000/acre for the interests they acquire in partition suits. Barbour County is getting $1,000/ac, and more if you negotiate hard, but 15% is the highest they'll go on royalty. That's because Consol/CNX is the only game in town. They will give you gross, though. Ritchie County is fluctuating, too, though I've heard that $2,500/acre is pretty common, and I know that at least one person on this forum is pushing for more. I don't know about the royalty amounts there. In Marion I've been able to get a very desperate company up over $1,500/acre (I told them I wouldn't say exactly what) and over 18%. It's mostly dry gas, so they don't want to pay as much as they will across the border in Tyler, but if you have gas there, push hard for better bonuses. I occasionally hear of things going on in other counties, but not much. I know the courthouse here in Upshur County is busy, and I hear the Lewis County courthouse is even more busy, so I expect to start hearing about leasing going on in both of those counties.
Thanks Kyle. That is very good information.
My name is James. I own 12 acres in Monongalia with 100% of the mineral rights both the property & mineral split 50/50 with my sister. We have recently been contacted to lease our mineral rights to EQT and should receive a lease agreement this week.
Kyle, I’m sure a lot of us non oil and gas people would like an explanation of “Net” and “Gross”. Maybe you could identify where we could find the explanation. If Nancy or anyone else on here has that info I hope you will identify where/what.
Richard: "net" means after deductions (however defined) and "gross" should mean no deductions. However Antero has some terminology about "gross porceeds" that still allows them to take deductions. I'm sure Kyle can do better that that but it gives you an idea. Most of the old leases didn't mention any deductions and have been interpreted by the gas companies for decades as "gross", with no proceeds. It is just recently that the companies have gotten "creative".
Iwould like to start a discussion which will attempt to bring to light any news relating to current ‘forced pooling’ legislation. If anyone has news regarding the status of this issue in the legislature, or would like to post contact information for their representatives, for those who would like to contact them, it would be most welcome here. We need to protest this violation of our private property rights. I have drafted a letter that may be used as a template for anyone to use. Feel free to copy it, insert your county, and sign your name: As a resident of County, WV, I am writing to inform you of my opposition to any legislation that would support or advance the practice of seizure of private property in the form of ‘unitization’, ‘lease integration’, or ‘forced pooling’ of privately held mineral rights.
Legislation of this type is a violation of our constitutional rights regarding private property, and will strip landowners of their negotiation strength as well, should they be willing to lease their property. Sincerely, would like to start a discussion which will attempt to bring to light any news relating to current ‘forced pooling’ legislation. If anyone has news regarding the status of this issue in the legislature, or would like to post contact information for their representatives, for those who would like to contact them, it would be most welcome here. We need to protest this violation of our private property rights. I have drafted a letter that may be used as a template for anyone to use. Feel free to copy it, insert your county, and sign your name: As a resident of County, WV, I am writing to inform you of my opposition to any legislation that would support or advance the practice of seizure of private property in the form of ‘unitization’, ‘lease integration’, or ‘forced pooling’ of privately held mineral rights.
Legislation of this type is a violation of our constitutional rights regarding private property, and will strip landowners of their negotiation strength as well, should they be willing to lease their property. Sincerely,
‘Woody’ Ireland: Capitol Phone: (304) 340-3195 Home Phone: (304) 349-2957 Tim Armstead: Capitol Phone: (304) 340-3210 Home Phone: (304) 965-5169 roger.romine@wvhouse.gov Kent.Leonhardt@wvsenate.gov jeff.kessler@wvsenate.gov
Here is the link to the list of WV state senators
WV House
Here is the text of the bill
http://www.legis.state.wv.us/Bill_Text_HTML/2015_SESSIONS/RS/Bills/hb2688%20intr.htm
It passed the WV House Energy Committee on Thursday and will go before the house soon. Time to call or email (call is best).
This would give the companies even more leverage than they already have.
Help. We were contacted by XTO about two properties/tracts that our family is heir to - news to us! Where and how do I find information about these previously unknown property assets?
From their offer Exhibit "A" sheet:
- Along with the compass points of "lands now or previously bounded by..." description, there is info for the Tax Map Parcel No. which is 12-61-31. And containing 18.00 acres of land, more/less, described in certain deed to Debra K Vangieson from Scott L Morris, dated November 4, 2010 in DB 1072, Pg 348
It seemed simple enough, but I searched for something that would locate this parcel, and struck out. I tried to plug in numbers and or names in the the Marion County GIS Tax Map site and I'm obviously missing something.
Would someone please explain by best course of action? Thank you.
For Allen G Frantz, one thing you can do is to call the assessor’s office in the county and ask how to get a tax map, telling the map number you were given. They sell them, maybe $5.
Own several tracts in Upshur County. Can't find out if I own both surface and mineral, who the surface owners are, the physical address, locations on a map ect. Buckhannon County Courthouse personal directed us to a lawyer at $ 200. per hour. HELP!!!!! Ed Williams
Ed,
I am NOT an abstractor or an attorney, but if you will post the name on the tax tickets and any specific description associated with parcel on the tax ticket, I will run a search through a data base that I subscribe to.
Cheers
We own the mineral rights of approximately 60 acres in Liberty District, Marshall County, WV. We have been told that we will be unable to lease these rights due to the Victory Storage Field. Does anyone have any experience regarding this issue? We would prefer to lease these rights and may consider selling. Thanks in advance for any information.