I’m fairly new to the working interest owner side of mineral ownership and have inherited some working interests in the Spraberry Driver Unit which is a very large unit in Midland, Glasscock, Reagan and Upton counties. Pioneer and now Exxon/XTO is the Operator and we receive our JIBs and revenue checks from them. This interest goes back to the early 1950s. I’m at a loss on how the NRI being paid compared to the working interest percentage the JIBs is based on is ever in our favor. I know old wells have to be plugged. But now that new 3-4 mile long horizontals are being drilled in the unit we expected our revenue to go up a bit as well as our JIB invoices. However, apparently the JIB invoice is based on a unit wide working interest percentage, but the revenue we receive is on a tract participation basis and is reduced so many times it almost seems like it’s being paid more like an ORRI than a NRI when we have participated in successful new drills. I’ve gotten two different answers from the Operator and things don’t seem to add up at all. Does anyone have any insight in to how this might work when you own working interest in a large unit? I have an oil and gas lawyer looking in to things as well. But I’m trying to get as much knowledge as I can on the subject myself. The division orders I received listed the interest as NRI interest and had the exact same interest and description listed twice. One said 100 percent and the other said “ALL” under the “DO MAJ PROD” category. Under the current method the revenue is being paid versus the method the JIB costs are based on these interest would never be profitable no matter how many wells they drill or even with higher oil and gas prices. So something has to be wrong somewhere possibly? Any help is greatly appreciated. The working interest cost basis percentage is also much lower than the NRI percentage so you would think it would be profitable at some point. We are sent AFE’s asking to participate in new wells and agree to pay our share. But when we did and multiple successful wells were drilled and put online our revenue check only went up $100 a month where as each new drill our initial portion of the drilling cost was estimated around $2000.