Is there any chance there will be a turn around and the land owners will actually get what they were promised? Riches in the royalties. I remember it well. Back yard lawyers. "Don't give the lawyer any percentage give them $per acre" Well at the last minute I had a choice and went with giving the lawyer %1 of the royalties. He hasn't got nothing yet and, the $350 per acre is in my pocket. Well it was till I spent it all down to the level I was at before I was rich. (I wrote about that before how hard it is for anyone to hold onto a wind fall) At the present after 3 yrs I think it was the right choice and, when the gas co. starts cheating me my lawyer has an interest with me and many others in our group to try to fight for us. That 1% of a group will line his pockets pretty good.
Tags:
I truly believe the money is in the royalties...long-term. I am in Belmont County and have been getting royalties for 3-4 months (3 from one company and 4 from another). My signing bonus was over $5000 (and under $7000). In those 3 1/2 months I have received 56.5% of the bonus. I will have surpassed the signing bonus in 7 months (depending on prices) at the current pace.
Thanks for the reply. But, at this point so far it looks like your a minority. I'd like to see everyone doing that well but I don't see it in the last year or the near future for the average person selling their gas.
keep in mind joe, that on these forums you have a disproportionate number of unleased/un-unitized folks still waiting for a lease or royalties. they are here still searching for info on what they have yet to receive.
over the years I have noticed that folks who started receiving royalties faded away.they no longer needed answers, they moved on to greener pastures.
information from the minority in this case is not necessarily indicative of the value of the information itself.
wj
I suppose I can't disagree with you on that point especially. However, I also believe that a large portion of people that feel their getting short changed in their royalties are still here looking/hoping for answers.
Yes I have said before that if I was rolling in the dough I wouldn't be hanging out here.
Look at this way: the oil and gas industry has been speculative since its inception. It's all boom (we all know who those guys are) or bust (Magnum Hunter for example). With big risks, come big rewards.
So when the Marcellus boom began in earnest circa 2008, there were a lot of competitors in the region vying for the same acreage. If you're an oil and gas company and you weren't trying to build a strong position (as opposed to a few leases here and there), you'd be completely left out of the play. So what do you do? You scramble to get everything you can get your hands on and figure the rest out later.
And what was the play? The play was the potential to produce what turned out to be trillions of cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves for the next century or more. It's not a short-term scheme to produce for a decade and disappear into the sunset. But the only way to do that is to lock up acreage--meaning you have to lease and hold those leases by production. Actually getting the gas to market is secondary from what I've seen.
In my opinion, that's what we've been seeing in the last 2-5 years (depending on where you are): companies scrambling to HBP leases they have on their books. It is also my opinion that we're likely to see a lot more of it in the coming years until the vast majority is HBP. Think EQT announcing that it will ramp up drilling in this depressed natural gas market.
Once that happens, we're going to see what I expect to be well laid plans to economically develop every cubic foot of natural gas. At that time, the pressure is off since time and competition are no longer issues on the whole.
The point is, production isn't going to be over in a matter of 20 years or so. Royalty payments aren't going to end in a matter of 20 years or so. We're just in the middle of the chaos right now and for the foreseeable future.
See reply below
JOE: They can sell the gas to the dozens of of coal fired plants that are able to convert from coal to gas instead of shutting down like president Obama had hoped. They can also sell gas overseas, where the price per mmbtu is anywhere from $13-16 versus the $2 here in the US (other countries don't have our reserves available through horizontal drilling and fracturing). They can also sell gas to the millions in the NE of the US who heat, at much greater expense, with fuel oil because natural gas pipelines haven't been built to their area.
Bill Bergseid I'm all for selling the gas to converted power plants and, hip, hip, hooray if we can lower our fellow Americans utility bills. I don't want to see it going over seas raising our price to $13-16. I want life to be better for my fellow Americans, my children, my grand children, and right on down the line. You may have read other places that Geologist are voodoo scientist at best. No matter what anyone says we do not have an unlimited supply of gas and oil.
From what I've read here on these pages there seems to be a few who believe the royalty income is going to be more lucrative than the delay rental payment at signing into a lease.
But there seems to me to be many more who do not.
I see the few who believe the royalty as more lucrative as a minority among a minority.
To each their own - but I think lessors should shoot to maximize their return on both fronts myself.
JMHOs
I would just add another point.
In large part, what we've witnessed since the whole boom started is drilling for the Marcellus. What we've discovered in the last couple of years is that the Utica is another major play as far east as PA. Just two years ago, there were questions whether it would be profitable to produce the Utica in parts of WV. What is more, these new Utica wells are gushers.
What that means is that vast majority of the region will have the ability to produce two, huge shales. Therefore, two rounds of royalty checks.
Unfortunately, a lot of self-represented (and even most represented landowners) leased everything from the surface to the center of the earth. The result is that an oil and gas company can produce the Marcellus and HBP the Utica without drilling it (absent a vertical Pugh clause). The oil and gas company has no immediate incentive to produce the Utica so it could be anyone's guess when it is produced (10, 20, 50 years into the future?). The point is, get an experienced, oil and gas attorney.
Now this is a good productive discussion. Appreciate all the intelligent well thought out views. Thanks everyone.I Enjoy reading this post!
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