Oil & Gas Operators Deducting Too Many Fees

Oil and gas exploration entered a new era in 2008 with the announcement of the discovery of the Haynesville shale play in Louisiana (and later Texas). The Barnett shale, Fayetteville shale and other shale plays had seen some development before that but the Haynesville broke it wide open.

This post is about deductions from royalty checks to the mineral owners. Prior to 2008, in my opinion, all was pretty much well. Operators did not make many deductions to oil and gas royalty checks. We are primarily talking about deductions pertinent to natural gas, not crude oil or condensate. The problem for royalty owners has surfaced in the past few years. The two worst companies operating in the Haynesville shale which I have seen are Chesapeake and Samson. Wow, they are socking it to the royalty owners. Instead of a few percent, I've seen it as high as 33%. Say your check's gross amount due you is $1,000; they deduct up to $330 for fees. And often, exactly what these fees are is impossible to determine. This isn't right. Some operators don't even show deductions at all, they just pay the royalty owner a lower price for each unit of natural gas. Something should be done about this. And, in fact, something is being done about it in some cases, as numerous lawsuits have occurred. What a shame. The governing authorities should step in here and protect royalty owners. But, who knows if that will ever happen. And, in some states, a class action lawsuit, where a lot of mineral/royalty owners could band together in a class action, it just isn't possible due to the way the laws are in that state. I hope things will improve.

I have had people contact me wishing to sell their mineral and royalty rights because it's just not worth dealing with it due to excessive deductions and fees reducing their royalty check amount. These regular oil and gas checks sure come in handy for people but you sure hate to be "taken." I understand their thinking and regret that operators put people in this position. And as I said, this only started happening in the past few years. For anyone thinking along these lines (about selling royalties), here is more info: selling mineral rights.