In the United States and in some parts of Canada, those who own mineral rights usually own the royalty rights to their proportionate share to the oil and gas production revenue from oil and gas wells. The owner of the executive right is the one who has the right to explore for oil and gas on the property or lease it to an oil company. In return, he will enjoy a royalty, a share of the production. The royalties are usually a minimum of one-eighth (1/8th) of the well's production, multiplied by his share of acreage within the production unit.
For as long as there has been oil and gas production in the USA and Canada, royalties have been bought and sold. One can readily sell royalties in any oil and gas producing region, it's just a matter of finding a willing and reputable buyer. The oil rights or gas rights value varies widely. If you wish to sell oil rights or sell gas rights, bear in mind that if the royalties are paying from a well that is a good producer, obviously, the royalties will be worth more than those from a poor producer. The value is calculated from the projected income stream from future production. The value is also dependent on whether or not the income is declining.
There are many reasons why owners choose to sell oil or gas royalties. Perhaps they wish to buy something or provide for children's education. Maybe the owner just wishes to enjoy life more or to enjoy retirement more with sure-thing cash settlement. If one keeps the royalties, it may take many years to achieve the same amount of cash income that a sale of royalties will produce. And, some owners sell because the royalty interest is small and the paperwork is burdensome. It just might not be worth the hassle of keeping it. A lot of owners find it complicated and just wish to simplify their life and leave it up to a buyer to monitor the production and revenue. Increasingly, older generations who own royalty rights are dying off and children and grandchildren inherit the royalties; the royalty interests are diluted by the number of heirs and many would just rather sell something they know nothing about.
The oil and gas business is daunting, complicated to the royalty owner, but selling royalty rights is not difficult with an experienced royalty buyer. A sale of royalty rights can be accomplished fairly quickly but it can't happen in a day or two. It does take a little bit of time but a good royalty buyer makes the process easy, as he will do most all of the work, making sure that the royalty interest is transferred properly with the county and also the oil and gas company which operates the oil or gas well. Whether you wish to sell oil rights or sell gas rights, you can enjoy a lump sum settlement payment for your royalties.
For more information about selling oil and gas rights, read this site about selling royalties or contact this blogger.
Showing posts with label gas royalties. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gas royalties. Show all posts
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Friday, May 31, 2013
How much will my royalty check decline? (Oil royalty / gas royalty)
Mineral rights owners usually own the right to the royalty right -- royalties. There is a provision in an oil and gas lease for this. It's commonly a minimum of one-eighth of the well's production, multiplied times their share in the production unit. (In modern wells, they are usually pooled with neighboring parcels into a production unit. Average production unit size is 640 acres, but it can be larger, say 960 acres or 1,280 acres.
Let's take a hypothetical royalty owner who has sufficient acreage in a production unit such that when the well first comes in, it is paying him $1,000 per month. Nice! How long will it stay at $1,000/month? Impossible to say, it might be one month, three or four months, or more. Usually a month or two. (This also depends on how the operator is producing the well. They might keep the well production up for a few months using different choke sizes at the wellhead. Anyway, at some point, it will start to decline. In today's resource plays and shale plays such as the Bakken, Barnett, Haynesville, Eagle Ford, Tuscaloosa Marine Shale, Marceullus, Utica, Niobrara, Cline, etc., like the tight sands drilling of the past couple of decades, these reservoir rocks are very tight (dense) and they must be fracked to get the oil or gas out. The word "frack" is short for "hydraulic fracture" and this (along with horizontal drilling) is what makes modern oil and gas exploration tick. And since these shales or tight sands are not very permeable, the nature of the beast is that production drops off much more rapidly than in a conventional (say, permeable sandstone, limestone or dolomite) reservoir.
How fast? Generally these modern wells will drop 50-85% during the first year. Then, say, 35-50% the second year. It will flatten out some after that but it will always be decreasing over time. Bottom line is that 2-3 years later, one's royalty check is usually only about 5 to 10% of what it was in the beginning. So, plan accordingly and do not get used to the big checks for any oil or gas well, because they will NOT last! Enjoy it while you got it!
Here is a production chart from a well I looked at recently that is actually pretty good. Two years later, it's producing 20% of it's initial rate. That's good for these type wells! This is a Haynesville shale well.
WELL #1
This next Haynesville shale well exhibits a more normal production decline shape where it declines rapidly in year 1 and flattens out. Two years later, it is only producing a small fraction of its initial production rate.
WELL #2
We don't know how long these wells will produce because these new resource plays are pretty new. Operators say they'll produce for decades and I hope that's true but operators love to toot their horns because they are trying to please stockholders. We just don't know. I do know that I have looked at quite a few wells that dropped off like a rock and they will not last but a few years. There is no way they can continue much longer, as they are barely scraping a profit right now, and still declining. I am hoping that in the "sweet spots," where production is good, the wells will behave as operators predict and last for a long time once they start their flattened decline rate. Time will tell! Welcome to the oil patch, risk is everywhere! Including risks such as the reservoir rock fractures closing once the reservoir pressure is reduced to a certain point. If the fractures close, gas entry to the wellbore could largely shut down and it would be over. (They'd have to plug and abandon the well.) Scary! (Scary because we don't know!)
But, we also have the benefit of being in an amazing technological revolution, so, who knows what they will come up with twenty years from now!
As for one's particular royalty check income stream, if the income is sufficient, one can just hold what they got. But, if one ever gets to the point that he doesn't want to deal with the paperwork or deal with small checks and would just rather cash out and get a lump sum, or perhaps he needs money for whatever reason, an option is sell for a lump sum cash settlement. For info, here is a website for selling royalty rights.
Good luck, I hope they hit a gusher on your place and you get rich as Jed Clampett!
Let's take a hypothetical royalty owner who has sufficient acreage in a production unit such that when the well first comes in, it is paying him $1,000 per month. Nice! How long will it stay at $1,000/month? Impossible to say, it might be one month, three or four months, or more. Usually a month or two. (This also depends on how the operator is producing the well. They might keep the well production up for a few months using different choke sizes at the wellhead. Anyway, at some point, it will start to decline. In today's resource plays and shale plays such as the Bakken, Barnett, Haynesville, Eagle Ford, Tuscaloosa Marine Shale, Marceullus, Utica, Niobrara, Cline, etc., like the tight sands drilling of the past couple of decades, these reservoir rocks are very tight (dense) and they must be fracked to get the oil or gas out. The word "frack" is short for "hydraulic fracture" and this (along with horizontal drilling) is what makes modern oil and gas exploration tick. And since these shales or tight sands are not very permeable, the nature of the beast is that production drops off much more rapidly than in a conventional (say, permeable sandstone, limestone or dolomite) reservoir.
How fast? Generally these modern wells will drop 50-85% during the first year. Then, say, 35-50% the second year. It will flatten out some after that but it will always be decreasing over time. Bottom line is that 2-3 years later, one's royalty check is usually only about 5 to 10% of what it was in the beginning. So, plan accordingly and do not get used to the big checks for any oil or gas well, because they will NOT last! Enjoy it while you got it!
Here is a production chart from a well I looked at recently that is actually pretty good. Two years later, it's producing 20% of it's initial rate. That's good for these type wells! This is a Haynesville shale well.
WELL #1
This next Haynesville shale well exhibits a more normal production decline shape where it declines rapidly in year 1 and flattens out. Two years later, it is only producing a small fraction of its initial production rate.
WELL #2
We don't know how long these wells will produce because these new resource plays are pretty new. Operators say they'll produce for decades and I hope that's true but operators love to toot their horns because they are trying to please stockholders. We just don't know. I do know that I have looked at quite a few wells that dropped off like a rock and they will not last but a few years. There is no way they can continue much longer, as they are barely scraping a profit right now, and still declining. I am hoping that in the "sweet spots," where production is good, the wells will behave as operators predict and last for a long time once they start their flattened decline rate. Time will tell! Welcome to the oil patch, risk is everywhere! Including risks such as the reservoir rock fractures closing once the reservoir pressure is reduced to a certain point. If the fractures close, gas entry to the wellbore could largely shut down and it would be over. (They'd have to plug and abandon the well.) Scary! (Scary because we don't know!)
But, we also have the benefit of being in an amazing technological revolution, so, who knows what they will come up with twenty years from now!
As for one's particular royalty check income stream, if the income is sufficient, one can just hold what they got. But, if one ever gets to the point that he doesn't want to deal with the paperwork or deal with small checks and would just rather cash out and get a lump sum, or perhaps he needs money for whatever reason, an option is sell for a lump sum cash settlement. For info, here is a website for selling royalty rights.
Good luck, I hope they hit a gusher on your place and you get rich as Jed Clampett!
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