Sell your Lewis County mineral rights.

Lewis County is the southeastern edge of the Marcellus, and we would rather say that plainly than sell you a core Marcellus story. The shale here is thinner and less thermally mature than in Harrison or Doddridge, predominantly dry with limited liquids, and the economics are marginal by comparison. What dominates is century old shallow conventional production: roughly 2,816 producing wells out of about 5,700 on file, at very low per well rates. HG Energy, which is rolling into Antero, plus Diversified, Key Oil, American Energy Holdings, and Mountain V are the main operators among 67 producing operators of record.

The distinctive local issue is gas storage. Jane Lew is a major underground storage area on the Eastern Gas Transmission and Storage system. Storage fields commit specific formations and encumber leasing independently of production, so a Lewis County tract can have storage rights in one party's hands, shallow rights in another's, and deep rights in a third's. That has to be sorted out before anyone quotes a price, and we do it as part of the free research.

Flat rate leases from the early 1900s are everywhere here. Under W. Va. Code section 22-6-8 those convert to a minimum one eighth royalty that may not be diluted by post production costs, so the number printed on a century old lease is not what you are owed.

The West Virginia Mineral Development Office has also auctioned state owned mineral tracts in this county. We buy small conventional interests with no minimum and pay all closing costs.