2025
Because it was a new Governor’s first legislative session, it ran from the second Wednesday in February to the second Saturday in April. That gave us extra time to prepare, but we hate being trapped inside the Capitol, looking out the windows at a beautiful spring. This year, and the next two, it will run from the second Wednesday in January to the second Saturday in March. With your help, we made a difference in 2025, though not all of our efforts were successful.
The passage of HB 22 was a big win! With almost all new gas production coming from horizontal shale wells drilled by a few large operators, production from thousands and thousands of conventional vertical wells owned by small operators continues its inevitable decline. As small operators’ wells produce less gas, they get paid less when they sell it , and they become more cash-strapped. So, many stop paying royalties.
There was already a statute to help mineral owners (a third of WV SORO members) who do not receive royalties from the big operators of horizontal shale wells, but there is no statute to help royalty owners who are getting stiffed by small operators of conventional wells. And because the amounts are lower, hiring a lawyer to sue for unpaid royalties from conventional wells was not worth the lawyer’s fee.
The West Virginia Royalty Owners Association took the lead, and with help from the Farm Bureau and WV SORO, SB 22 passed. Now, after six months of non-payment, a royalty owner can sue for triple damages and attorneys’ fees! We have a new page on this on our site if you are in this situation or know someone who is.
HB 124 dying was another big win. This bill would have changed the statute of limitations on suits for back royalties. This was particularly important in the big class actions against companies deducting expenses from mineral owners’ royalty payments. WV SORO made the point at an important legislative committee meeting that, with a 12.5% royalty, drillers already keep more than 85% of the value of our gas! But then, in addition, they want to take a share of the “post deduction” costs and other expenses out of the royalty recipient’s checks! That is what the 85% they get to keep is for.
One example is “line loss.” They want to deduct the value of our gas that leaks from their wellheads and gas lines before it reaches the market. And they want to deduct a share of the taxes they have to pay for the “business of severing natural gas or oil for sale” from royalty payments. Our testimony, plus opposition from the WV Association for Justice, killed the bill!
We were not able to stop HB 3336, which was pushed hard by Diversified and allowed a shortcut when plugging old wells. We said no changes in well plugging should be allowed until someone has reviewed the study by Princeton and McGill Universities to determine why several plugged wells in northern West Virginia already leak small amounts of gas. That review has never been done. Nevertheless, the Legislature passed this bill allowing the plugger to leave the uncemented production pipe casing in the wells. At depths where cementing was required, the plugger could just punch holes in the casing to try to get cement across the entire wellbore.
Diversified had already gotten a “waiver” to plug 10 wells this way. Before the end of the session, we learned that one of those wells had leaked and had to be re-plugged. We told the last committee that took up the bill, but it was too late, and the bill passed. We have more about this on our website. I guess we will have to start sponsoring WVU sports to get our way!
SB 11 and HB 3415 never went anywhere. These bills would have prevented new wells from becoming orphaned by requiring the driller to set aside money from the time a well first goes into production. That money would be placed in an interest-bearing account so that it is available later when the driller needs to plug the well.
A horizontal shale well produces 60 times the gas of a conventional well, but only costs about one and a half times as much to plug. Only 1/100 to 1/500th of each well’s yearly income needs to be set aside. HB 3415 required the same for wells that are transferred, and did other things. However, the oil and gas industry is powerful in the Legislature, and we were not able to get these bills moving. Similarly, our bills to create a land reunion of the surface and any minerals sold for tax sales also did not pass. But we are not giving up.
2026
We will be back at the Legislature in 2026, trying to get our bills that did not pass in 2025 passed. And we will be ready to fight against the latest crop of bad ideas. Our presence prevents really, really stupid or greedy ideas from even getting introduced!
Legislators pay more attention to communications from back home than they do to our familiar faces. So be on the lookout for our email alerts asking you to contact your local legislators. If you have never received an alert from us, please contact us at info@wvsoro.org with your email address so we can add you to our list.
