A landman checks your gas royalty, and works for you.

For mineral and royalty owners in the Haynesville, Cotton Valley and Eagle Ford gas plays. Send a check stub, your division order or the lease. We check your decimal against the unit, read what comes off the stub, and write back a review: what matches, what doesn't, and a value range for the checks still to come, with every assumption written down.

Ask for a review We work for you: decimal, deductions, value.

Independent landmen. (307) 263-8515

Illustration, not a real well. A year of a Haynesville-style shale well on a round meter chart: the pen starts on the outer ring and falls toward the hub as the well declines, ending the year near a third of its first-day rate.

Whose side we're on

This site does reviews, for you. We act as your landman on the interest you send, once we confirm it in writing before any work starts.

What the checks add up to

A buyer doesn't pay for this month's check. They pay for the checks still to come, discounted for time and risk. Set your numbers and the curve and totals follow. The curve is a new well starting in month one, so use your own well's production if you have it. Every figure here is an estimate on an illustrative curve, not an appraisal and not an offer.

Your interest Net mineral acres in the unit

NMA

Royalty in your lease Unit size

gross ac

The wells, as an illustration Producing wells in the unit

wells

Starting rate per well

Mcf/d

Illustrative. Louisiana's SONRIS and the Texas RRC publish reported production (how to read the Texas report); use your well's numbers if you have them. Every well here runs on the same curve, all starting in month one, so an older well has less left than this shows.

Your assumptions Gas price you want to test

$/Mcf

Your number, not a quote or a forecast.

Taxes and deductions

% of gross

Discount rate

% a year

An offer you're weighing (optional)

$ per NRA

Illustration: your estimated monthly check on a Haynesville-style decline, 20 years. The shaded area is the checks added up. The curve shape is ours (steep first year, then a long slow tail), not any well's data.

Discounted value, 20 years of checks $144,314 Discounted at 10 percent a year, gas at $3.00/Mcf, 20 percent of gross off for taxes and deductions. An estimate, not an appraisal.

Net royalty acres (NRA)	40
Your decimal in the unit	0.00781250
First month's check	$7,928
First 12 months of checks	$57,550
20 years of checks, not discounted	$213,796

Weighing an offer? Put its price per NRA in the last box to see it against these checks.

NRA: NMA × royalty ÷ 1/8 Puts different leases on one footing. 20 net acres leased at 1/4 is 40 NRA. Buyers quote offers per NRA, so a price per NRA means little until you know yours.
Decimal: NMA ÷ unit acres × royalty Your share of everything the unit sells. 20 ÷ 640 × 1/4 = 0.00781250. It should match your division order.
Check: unit Mcf × decimal × price, less taxes and deductions Month by month, down the curve.
Discounted value: each check ÷ (1 + rate)^{years out} A dollar in year ten is worth less than a dollar next month. It's one way to weigh an offer against the checks still to come.

What comes off a gas check

Between your well and the buyer's meter, gas gets gathered, compressed, dried, treated and moved. Whether those costs come out of your royalty depends on where your lease values the gas, and on the exact words it uses. This is general information, not legal advice, and no substitute for the advice of an attorney.

Post-production costs, between the well and the sale. Stub codes vary by operator; these are common ones.

At the wellWellheadWhere "market value at the well" is figured.
GatheringGATHSmall lines carry gas from the pad to a central point.
CompressionCOMPRaises pressure to push gas into larger lines.
Dehydration and treatingDEHY · TRTPulls out water, CO₂ and hydrogen sulfide.
ProcessingPROC · plant productsStrips liquids out of rich gas, as in much of the Eagle Ford.
TransportationTRANS · FUELMoves residue gas to where it's sold.
At the saleSales pointWhere "proceeds" or "amount realized" is figured.

Texas

The royalty clause controls. A lease that pays on market value at the well lets the operator net post-production costs back to the wellhead, and a "no deductions" sentence alone may not change that (Heritage Resources v. NationsBank, 1996). A lease that pays on proceeds at the point of sale, or whose lease says costs the purchaser took out in setting the price must be "added to" gross proceeds (Devon Energy v. Sheppard, 2023), can come out the other way.

Louisiana

Leased owners are back to the lease language. An unleased owner in a unit the state conservation agency formed is different: in Self v. BPX Operating Co. (La. 2024) the Louisiana Supreme Court held an operator can't use negotiorum gestio to charge that owner post-production costs. Other arguments were left open, so ask an oil and gas attorney before relying on it. If royalties go unpaid, the Mineral Code requires written notice to the lessee before you sue (La. R.S. 31:137).

Read your Texas stub

Nat. Res. Code § 91.502 says it has to show:

the well or lease, and the month of sale
the volume sold and the price per Mcf
severance and other production taxes paid
any other deductions or adjustments
your decimal, your share before tax deductions, and the net value

If a deduction isn't explained, § 91.504 lets you ask the payor to explain it in writing, and gives the payor 60 days to answer. The statute says how the request has to be sent.

Want the case law behind those two paragraphs? How Texas courts read a gas royalty clause on post-production costs reads four Texas Supreme Court opinions and says what each one decided.

Haynesville, Cotton Valley, Eagle Ford

Three gas plays, each with its own questions on a landman's desk. These are the ones we check first. For ten East Texas counties, including Panola, Harrison, Shelby, Nacogdoches and Freestone, mineral.tools shows from public records whether a lease is still reporting production.

Haynesville and Bossier shale

Where: Northwest Louisiana (DeSoto, Caddo, Bossier, Red River, Sabine, Natchitoches parishes) and East Texas (Panola, Harrison, Shelby, San Augustine, Nacogdoches counties).
The rock: Deep, high-pressure dry gas shale, more than 10,000 feet down. Long horizontal wells that start high and fall fast.
We check: In Louisiana, the Conservation order that formed your unit and your tract's share of it, how cross-unit wells are split, and whether you're being paid as a leased or unleased owner. In Texas, the pooling clause and the unit designation of record.

Cotton Valley

Where: East Texas (Panola, Rusk, Harrison, Freestone counties) and North Louisiana, including the Terryville field in Lincoln Parish.
The rock: Tight gas sands above the Haynesville, drilled vertically for decades and horizontally since.
We check: Whether an old Cotton Valley well is holding your whole lease, deep rights included. A depth clause or a Pugh clause can free the Haynesville below it; without one, one shallow well may hold everything.

Eagle Ford gas

Where: South Texas, including Webb County. On the federal Energy Information Administration's play maps, the gas-rich wells run along the southern edge of the play and the oil-rich wells along the north.
The rock: Shale whose gas is often rich in liquids, so a stub can carry residue gas, plant products and condensate on separate lines.
We check: How the lease pays on plant products and residue gas, whether processing comes off, and whether the stub carries what § 91.502 lists.

Guides

Longer reads, each one written from the court's own opinions or the state's own pages, with every source listed and the date it was opened. General information, not legal advice.

Texas courts How Texas courts read a gas royalty clause on post-production costs What four Texas Supreme Court opinions, from 1996 to 2026, decided about their own leases and deed, and what each one left open. Railroad Commission Reading the Railroad Commission's production report for a gas well What Form PR counts, what the disposition codes mean, what the Production Data Query shows, and how it differs from a royalty stub. Check stub audit Post-production deductions on a Texas gas royalty check stub Gathering, compression, dehydration, treating, processing, and transport codes under Natural Resources Code Sections 91.502 and 91.504. Stub diagnostic Why did my gas royalty check drop? Six things to check across two consecutive stubs: Year-1 shale decline, offset frac shut-ins, basis, prior-period reversals, and decimal changes. Wet gas & NGLs Plant products, NGLs, and residue gas on a royalty stub Why rich-gas wells in the Eagle Ford and Cotton Valley split into condensate, plant products, and residue gas, and how POP contracts work. East TX & North LA Haynesville and Bossier Shale gas royalty review Cross-unit horizontal laterals, shallow Cotton Valley HBP leases vs. deep rights, and Texas vs. Louisiana compulsory unit rules.

Words on a stub or a division order

The shorthand you'll run into, in plain terms.

Decimal interest: Your share of the unit's production, carried to eight places on the division order and the stub.
Division order: The operator's statement of your decimal, which you sign to get paid. In Texas a division order doesn't change your lease, but a signed one binds you until you give notice (Nat. Res. Code § 91.402).
NMA, net mineral acres: Gross acres in the tract times the fraction of the minerals you own.
NRA, net royalty acres: NMA times your royalty, divided by 1/8. The unit buyers price in.
Mcf and MMBtu: A thousand cubic feet of gas, and a million BTU of heat. Gas sells by heat content; an Mcf of dry gas runs close to one MMBtu.
Dry gas, rich gas, plant products: Dry gas is nearly all methane. Rich (wet) gas carries liquids that a plant strips out and sells separately as plant products or NGLs; what's left is residue gas.
Post-production costs: Gathering, compression, dehydration, treating, processing and transportation after the gas leaves the well.
Market value at the well: A royalty basis that works the sales price back to the wellhead, so post-production costs come off first.
Pugh clause: A lease clause that lets land outside a pooled unit go free instead of being held by one well in the unit.
Depth clause: A lease clause that releases the depths below what's producing once the primary term, or a set period after it, ends.
Shut-in royalty: A payment that keeps a lease alive while a gas well can produce but isn't selling.
Compulsory unit: In Louisiana, a unit formed by order of the state conservation agency. Every tract inside shares production by acreage, leased or not.
Cross-unit well: A horizontal well whose lateral crosses unit lines. Production is split among the units under the Conservation order.
Basis: The gap between the Henry Hub price in the news and the price paid where your gas is actually sold.
Suspense: Royalty held back, usually over a title question. Texas lets a payor hold royalty without interest while a real title question is open (Nat. Res. Code § 91.402(b)); late payments outside that carry interest (§ 91.403).

Questions owners ask

I got a letter offering to buy my minerals. Is it fair?

Turn it into numbers you can compare. Work out your NRA, put the offer's price per NRA in the worksheet, and see how many months of modeled checks it equals. If you want a read from someone who isn't the buyer, ask for a review. An oil and gas attorney is a good second opinion before you sign anything.

Why is my gas check smaller than the price in the news?

The news quotes Henry Hub. Your gas sells somewhere else, at a different price (basis), adjusted for heat content. Then severance tax and any post-production costs come off, and you get your decimal of what's left.

My checks fell by more than half in a year. Is something wrong?

Maybe not. Shale gas wells come on at their highest rate and decline fast early; that's a curve like the one above, not your well. A check that stops, or a decimal that changes, is different: look for a new division order, a title question that put you in suspense, or a shut-in.

Who do you work for?

You. Every request here is a review, confirmed in writing before any work starts.

Are you lawyers?

No. We're independent landmen. If your lease or stub raises a legal claim, we'll say so and point you to an oil and gas attorney where the land sits.

Ask for a review

Tell us where the interest is and what you have in hand. A stub, a division order or a lease helps, but a county and an operator is enough to start. We read requests as they come in.

We work as independent landmen. We aren't attorneys and don't give legal opinions; we work alongside your attorney and title company. Nothing here is a substitute for the advice of an attorney.

Rather talk it through?(307) 263-8515 · hello@naturalgas.land

The request form needs JavaScript. Please call (307) 263-8515 or email hello@naturalgas.land with the county or parish, the operator or well, and what you'd like reviewed.