Hey, olddog. All the on-line calculators that I have used were around before the HS. I believe they use decline variables based on conventional gas production, not shale gas and certainly not the Haynesville Shale. The ~67% differential is based on an estimate that the decline for conventional gas wells is ~50% and the HS 82 to 85% in the first year. It's a guess but I hope it's in the ball park. If you had a first month royalty of $1000, the thirteenth month would be ~$150, a decline of ~85%. If the thirteenth month was $150, the 25th. month would be ~ $99.00, a 34% decline in the second year. The $99.00 25th. month would be ~ $77.22, a 22% decline in month 37. Etc. It would be a great feature if GHS had it's own calculator using the HS decline estimate.
Over the life of your lease you should get 6 to 8 wells. Some will have their greatest production during periods of higher price and some at lesser. Eventually you will have combined production and royalty from them all. For most of us, it's income we never planned on. It can be a real blessing if we just use it wisely. Part of accomplishing the wise management of royalty income is understanding how it fluctuates over time.
Yea it is kinda depressing but what can you do. They got the lease so.I wish gas would go back up but i dont see that happening for awhile.I dont understand what you mean Skip about getting 6 to 8 wells? I thought that if they hit and it runs out that they wouldnt drill that unit again?Yea i dont plan on using any royalty money that i receive for a long time. Just plan on getting it and investing it.
Most of us will get multiple wells up to a maximum of 8 under current spacing regulations. It is estimated that it will take 6 to 8 wells to efficiently drain the standard 640 +/- acre section/drilling unit. Larger units will have more wells based on 80 acre spacing but every lessor (no matter the unit size) will share in the production (royalty) of each and every well. Therefore your royalty will fluctuate over the commercial life of the wells in your unit.
Having received royalty payments for some time, I can echo your comments. There are two things we can count on: the price will go up and the price will go down. I can remember getting $1.70 for gas after it had been two to three times higher earlier.
While we would all love NG to be t $10 and to have gently declining production curves extending out 20 years or more, that isn't the way it works, is it?
I have reduced the data given by Skip in his second set of calculations to a Excel spreadsheet that allows you to calculate the same data for any given acreage, royalty rate, gas flow, and gas price. My spread sheet uses one gas price for the entire ten year period though it could easily be modified to use a different price for each year. Very interesting information.
I would be glad to share my work, although I certainly don't want to vouch for either my math or Skip's (or Chesapeake's) decline rate estimates. Is there any way to upload a spreadsheet to the forum?