Royalties Plummeting at a More Rapid Rate - EQT Improvement under Rice Mgt?

Hello. It's been a while since I've been on here but I have a question for everyone I'm really curious about. Has anyone else noticed a sudden increase in plummeting royalty payments and market prices? I'm obviously not oblivious to the fact that the market has been steadily dropping for a variety of reasons and a lot of gas companies are dialing back production due to falling prices BUT the most recent market price seems to be twice the drop - at least  in my area. We are with EQT; former Rice Energy landowners, and bought stock and fought to vote the Rice team back into management positions at EQT after abysmal performance and poor relations over the course of EQT ownership of former Rice leaseholds. We had - and still have - confidence in the Rice contingent to turn things around for EQT but are currently questioning if it will be advantageous for their existing landowners and producing units. This months' ridiculously low sales accompanied by apparent lack of interest in advancing existing producing units have brought questions to mind. We attended the EQT Land Owner meetings with Toby Rice and a lot of emphasis was placed on returning to existing pads and drilling additional laterals, thereby saving prep costs, increasing production, and lowering drilling costs. They cannot - of course - affect falling market prices, however we haven't seen any attention being paid to existing units, which seem to be being let to slowly (and lately NOT so slowly) fizzle out. Wondering if this is something others are noticing. It would seem to me - logically - that the most financially profitable would be to get the most out of existing units, thereby reducing drilling costs, during this slump in market prices, rather than going to the expense of developing new units and starting from scratch. Just not understanding what is currently happening and wondering if anyone out there has any insight or ideas. Our unit is only 3 yrs old and has had an accumulative 30% drop in royalties over the past 12 mos and a full 30% drop between just last month and this month, which was a complete shock. Curious what others are thinking, though I'm sure it's nothing good.

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Kerr on February 22, 2020 at 6:12am

Lori  Hi just a note on gas prices  my Dec. check was for 2.21 per unit the best its been in a long time  EQT 

Permalink Reply by Lori Huber on February 22, 2020 at 9:45am

Great news. Glad we're getting a little bit of a boost. Hard to predict anything with the industry right now. Just heard that a lg EQT unit in Washington County (over 20 wells) was shut in with no notice in Dec (actually mid-Nov if you look at production reports). Shows Dec production as 1 mcf and they got statements showing 0 royalty. My big concern is that apparently not notifying landowners of shut in is EQT's protocol which gives absolutely no way to prepare. We're paid royalties 2 mos after production month and gas companies report production to DEP 60 days after production, so there is no way to know if your unit had production until you get your statement. This is NOT comforting. I checked production for Nov 2019 on the unit in question and all of the wells are producing well (some great) so its not about low production. Not sure what to think but am thinking about contingency plans in the event that our unit is shut in for whatever reason without notice. (ie: if they shut in in January, we will get no royalties in March. Just a statement showing all zeros and no - or 1 mcf - production). I believe reporting some kind of production (1 mcf) is intentional to keep the clock from starting on shut in time because they are only allowed to keep a well shut in for so long before being required to cap it. There is no reason to think that this unit's shut in will have any effect on the rest of the EQT units BUT forewarned is forearmed. I would rather at least be prepared in the event that it becomes more widespread. Just passing it on. Hopefully it is something technical with this particular unit that caused the shut in. So far, no one seems to know why, though.

Permalink Reply by Gary L on February 21, 2020 at 6:32pm

https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2020/01/31/eqt-could-se...

The above link conveys issues with EQT.  Thought I would post it as it may represent interest with the above topic.

Permalink Reply by BW_Appalachia on September 10, 2020 at 1:22am

Royalties have dropped for all operators.  They are a result of the gas price.  They can only pay on the market price.

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