Hey, Ohio! Let’s sue Antero!

Are there any attorneys out there who will help me sue Antero? Every month, year after year, they skim more in deductions from my royalty statements. This most recent check had 63% taken out, and some of the wells included have restrictions on deductions, so something clearly isn’t right.

How about you other Ohio landowners dealing with Antero? Can we get a class action going and bring these criminals to justice? Share your story here!

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Permalink Reply by Dave in Ohio on December 5, 2019 at 5:35pm

I remember when this place was my morning routine!

Permalink Reply by Joe Bezel on December 5, 2019 at 11:57am

It's not just Antero, Encino is doing it too.  From what I'm hearing, it's spreading across eastern Ohio.  They're taking deductions, regardless of lease language.  It's a jobs program for attorneys.  Find a good one and have at them.  If you don't fight it, they won't stop taking deductions.

Permalink Reply by Dave in Ohio on December 5, 2019 at 5:35pm

I'm hoping I can find one.  Unfortunately, most of the ones I knew who used to fight for landowners have switched to fighting against them.

Many of these companies take as much as they can get away with, but what Antero does is so blatantly illegitimate that I have to believe their time is coming.  If I can help make that happen, I will.

Permalink Reply by sherry on December 12, 2019 at 2:52am

Montage Resources, that took over Eclipse is doing the same thing.  They have been messing with the royalty owners for a while now.  From telling us lies, they started sending the checks very late. Blaming the change over, blaming the computers??? If I had that much trouble with my computer I would get rid of it!!!!  Then finally we got changed over to direct deposit. But, for 3 months it was still late. They are supposed to be setting it up that we can download our royalty statements, which it says on their website. Of course it doesn't work either yet. So, unless you call and ask for them to send it to you in a email, you will not get one. Now I am wishing Eclipse was back...lol              

28clr6acuhbmvPermalink Reply by 28clr6acuhbmv on December 5, 2019 at 1:38pm

The "Problem" has already been addressed by Sealed Federal Indictments that have been written.

Be patient, Corruption will be removed from Our Nation. Promises Made will be Promises Kept.

Relax even if you don't believe, you will live longer to enjoy the Real Royalties that will be paid.

Permalink Reply by Dave in Ohio on December 5, 2019 at 5:37pm

It sounds like you could use a little help there, brother.  There's no shame in talking to a professional.  Good luck!

Permalink Reply by Marcus Brown on December 11, 2019 at 9:16am

Ron, I like Trump too, but the stuff you are writing about is lunacy. O&G companies are going to be taken over for corruption by the feds and their assets placed in the treasury - all by executive order? C'mon man, come back down to earth.

Permalink Reply by Joe C. on December 9, 2019 at 12:37pm

Dave, did you get a non post production clause put in your lease?

Permalink Reply by Dave in Ohio on December 11, 2019 at 5:35pm

Thanks for the reply!  I didn't realize I wasn't getting notifications and thought the topic was over...

I have several different properties with several different leases.  Some of them are old HBP junk leases, but some of them do limit deductions.  The 63% deducted is the average across all of them, so that means that those old HBP leases have even greater than 63% removed.

Permalink Reply by Marcus Brown on December 11, 2019 at 7:11am

Deductions tend to be legal and fine depending on lease language, post production deduction clauses are generally only somewhat to not effective at all and generally lack enforcement language. I have never heard of indictments, sealed or otherwise, related to deductions as that tends to be a civil issue.

On the issue of finding an attorney and finding that all the good ones are conflicted out, that is a proven cost reduction strategy within the industry. If they can get all of the good local attorneys on retainer, land owners themselves cannot negotiate sophisticated leases no matter how sophisticated they believe that they are, so the retainers pay for themselves. Generally even attorneys have difficulty negotiating a sophisticated lease, the bar is really high now days. I think that sophisticated mineral managers are the way to go, but they are rare and fetch very high rates.

From experience, I would beware of any attorney that takes a class action that will not sign a comprehensive non-compete and financial disclosure, which they almost certainly will not do. My experience has been that a lot of attorneys, who are apparently not conflicted, representing landowners, will go to the oil companies, sign non disclosures with them, and have the oil companies pay them a flat fee under the table to bring a settlement to the land owners. I have never seen an oil company turn down any of those attorneys. The amount that the oil companies pay to the attorney is typically several fold what the land owner is paying to the attorney. Ethical attorneys will cost a land owner in the range of $60,000 to $300,000 for representation, the average that I have seen is $75k to $125k if a settlement is reached, $200k+ if it doesn't settle. All of the attorneys that I have seen taking money under the table charge in the $6k to $20k a landowner range. In Texas where I am from, there are only around 6 good firms that sue operators, out of hundreds and maybe thousands of firms that do oil and gas work. In Ohio, I imagine that the options are much slimmer. Some out of State firms, maybe some here in Texas, may be licensed in Ohio.

Good luck.

Permalink Reply by James Rowland Milleson on December 11, 2019 at 9:02am

NARO OHIO, meetings will be near you soon.  We are here and working on behalf of royalty/mineral owners throughout the Great State of Ohio

Permalink Reply by Marcus Brown on December 11, 2019 at 9:10am

+1 NARO is a great organization, even though I primarily work within the O&G industry, I have been a member for a couple years now myself. They tend to be a little behind the curve in leasehold trends as they are on the receiving end rather than the origination end, but they have been a resource to me to research the expectation v the reality of some of these lease clauses.

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