Lease & Royalty Payments

Back in January MDN told you about West Virginia House Bill (HB) 4270, a bill that provides more transparency for landowners on their royalty statements (see WV Co-Tenancy, Royalty Transparency Bills Make Progress). The good news is that the bill passed and was signed into law by Gov. Jim Justice on March 27th. For far too long royalty statements have been loosey-goosey. Landowners (technically royalty owners) get no specifics on how much gas (or other hydrocarbons) were produced, what deductions were made, and why those deductions were made. HB 4270, which goes into effect on June 8, will fix all that. Here’s more details on what is being called the “Check Stub Bill”…
Read More “WV Royalty Transparency Law Sheds New Light Beginning June”

While everyone was focused on the passage of a co-tenancy bill in West Virginia (see WV Gov. Justice Does 180 – Says He’ll Sign Co-Tenancy Bill), another bill, with arguably more impact on both rights owners and drillers, quietly made its way through the legislative process and was signed into law by Gov. Jim Justice on Friday. We’re talking about a bill that guarantees that rights owners (i.e. landowners) will get an actual, guaranteed minimum royalty of 12.5%–regardless of post production deductions. WV Senate Bill (SB) 360 is now the law! The bill was proposed to counter what landowners say was a miscarriage of justice at the hands of the WV Supreme Court in the Leggett v. EQT Production, a case in which the Supremes (in a very unusual move) reversed their own decision from a few months before and allowed EQT to deduct post-production expenses (see WV Supreme Court Reverses Itself, Post-Production Deductions OK). While this is fantastic news for landowners/rights owners in WV, you can’t escape the larger implications, which is that there is now no reason (no excuses left) why the PA version of this bill, introduced for the past three consecutive two-year sessions (six years total), can’t also get passed…

Important Note: SB 360 does NOT apply across the board, to all WV leases. It only applies to limited cases, like Leggett v. EQT, which are “flat rate royalty leases.” See a further explanation below.
Read More “WV Gov Justice Signs Bill to Guarantee 12.5% Minimum Royalty”

Earlier this week MDN told you that West Virginia royalty owners are pushing Senate Bill (SB) 360 to fix the issue of post-production deductions drillers take from royalty checks (see WV Royalty Owners Push Bill to Fix Post-Production Deductions). SB 360 would eliminate post-production expenses, such as transportation or severance taxes from royalty owners’ checks. The new news is that the WV House of Delegates is working on its own version of SB 360, called House Bill (HB) 4490. On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee voted to report the bill out–that is, they approved the bill to go on to the next step. But the vote, which was a voice vote, was split, indicating the ultimate success of the bill is far from assured. Needless to say drillers are not happy with either SB 360 or HB 4490. According to Anne Blankenship, executive director of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association, her group (which represents many, perhaps all of WV’s shale drillers) is not actively opposing the bill, but they are letting everyone know they don’t support it–which we call a distinction without a difference. Hundreds of people who work for the drilling industry rallied at the state Capitol in Charleston on Wednesday–there to push for passage of a bill that appears to be on the fast track: HB 4268, the “co-tenancy” bill. Below is an article covering the rally, which mentions HB 4490 on post-production deductions…
Read More “WV House Advances Bill to Fix Post-Production Deductions”