An Oklahoma woman claims Ovintiv Mid-Continent Inc uses dodgy accounting methods to underpay royalties to those with oil-and-gas leases with the company.
Lead plaintiff, Mary Lansden Swafford filed the class action lawsuit in Oklahoma federal court Wednesday seeking to represent others who were shorted or not even paid by Ovintiv. She says the company uses accounting methods that mislead Class Members into thinking they are owed less or nothing at all.
Ovintiv is a Denver-based oil and gas company that extracts resources from wells it leases from Class Members. Swafford says she runs a trust with at least one Ovintiv-operated well that produces gas
Under state oil-and-gas laws, the lessor, including Swafford and other Class Members, own the minerals and oil and gas, while the lessee, Ovintiv, has the operation, including money and labor, to extract these resources, explains the class action lawsuit.
“The usual revenue split from a well was 1/8th to the lessor (royalty owner) and 7/8ths to the lessee,” states the complaint. “As the risk of finding oil and gas has diminished over time, due to the prevalence of wells delineating the field, better seismic technology, and increased efficiency of drilling rigs, royalty owners on more recent leases have received 3/16th or even 1/4th of the revenue.”
The class action lawsuit accuses Ovintiv of deviating from uniform accounting procedures it is required to use to calculate oil-and-gas royalty payments to Class Members and keeping their accounting procedures secret to try to keep as much revenue as possible for themselves.
“The extraordinarily large dollars at stake and the one-sided nature of the gas lessor/lessee relationship are constant temptations to lessees to wrongfully retain gas revenues,” alleges the class action lawsuit which details multiple methods Ovintiv succumbs to this temptation and underpays its lessors.
Swafford wants to represent others who are royalty owners in Oklahoma oil-and-gas wells. She accuses Ovintiv of breaching the terms of its lease and wants the company to pay what it allegedly owes in royalties.
Do you own an oil and gas lease with Ovintiv? Are you concerned about your royalties? Tell us about it in the comment section below.
The plaintiff is represented by Reagan E. Bradford and Ryan K. Wilson of Bradford & Wilson PLLC.
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8 thoughts onOvintiv Accused of ‘Knowing and Willful’ Underpayment of Oil-and-Gas Royalties in Class Action Lawsuit
Dear Swarrod,
I hope this message finds you well. We are writing to address the recent class action details involving Ovintiv’s royalty payment practices, as outlined in the available documents. It has come to our attention that there may be significant discrepancies in the calculation of royalties owed to stakeholders, including our family.
Our late father held specific mineral rights that we believe are relevant to the claims outlined in the class action lawsuit. We are acutely aware of the exact percentages and rights he retained over the years, including other minerals and an overriding royalty interest (ORRI) under existing state oil-and-gas laws.
In these arrangements, as you may know, the lessor, which includes individuals like Swafford and other Class Members, owns the mineral rights while the lessee, in this case, Ovintiv, is responsible for the extraction operations. Historically, the revenue split for a well was typically 1/8th to the lessor and 7/8ths to the lessee. However, as exploration risks have decreased due to technological advancements and improved methodologies, it’s become more common for royalty owners to receive a higher percentage, such as 3/16th or even 1/4th of the revenue.
Given the importance of this matter, we respectfully request to be contacted at your earliest convenience. We believe it’s crucial to ascertain the accuracy of the royalty payments and ensure that all parties are adhering to fair and transparent accounting procedures. Our family’s interests must be correctly represented and compensated according to the original agreements.
Please let us know when it would be possible to discuss this matter further. We are eager to resolve any inconsistencies and affirm our rights as specified under our family’s retained interests.
Thank you for your attention and cooperation.
Sincerely,
ours also appears to be over in other areas with a operator in which a major oil company bough when they sold in 2019. Having the professional over, now working for OXY and the sister company not paying and refusing to take responsiblilty for misapropreactions in accounting as well, they are bigger and do not feel that need to abide by the laws, we are 3rd gen oil and gas owners. OK LA TX AR
Our family has been getting Royalties for many. years it’s passed down the family line. The cost for Maintenance is more then our royalties all the time. We have been getting very little lately sometimes nothing . Ovintiv seems to be doing something shady. Please add me to this list
Our family has a working interest in oil/gas wells in the Uintah Basin (Utah). Newfield/Encana/Ovintiv are a shady bunch. We rarely ever get a small royalty check (two last year). It seems like the expenses are always as much or more than the revenue. Hmmm…seem a little sketchy? They send me a bill for expenses each month. I never pay it. It’s not a huge amount of money each year but it just rubs against my grain to rarely ever get a dime out of them. The 1099 they sent out this year is complete fantasy. I sent them an email telling them as much. But they never answer any of my emails anyway. I wish we could just get away from them somehow.
I own royalty’s in coal county Oklahoma.
Mid Continental gave me the run around for years I still can only find out minimal information of the company changing hands a couple of times. I can not find any unclaimed funds and I know for a fact that they did not report their financials correctly.
On court documents that I printed out in 2010 they charge three different company’s for the same shipping on the gas, eating up over 790,000 dollars worth of royalty payments. I sent the copy’s I had of court documents to an attorney in OK. He called me, told me to lose his number, and said that he was burning the documents in the ally behind his office. This case is much bigger than you think.
So someone with some interest in the legal side of this case may want to return a message. Or supine court documents from the beginning that were sealed for some reason. There are over 150 documents and complaints filed about this in 2010, again they were not open to the public.
Barbara Gregory
I own royalties for oil and gas wells in Cole county and have for 30 years. I have not received one royalty check. I had looked at some court documents years ago and seen where there were several of the same charges for shipping but to different companies. When I questioned this I got lost in the shuffle and all communication was halted.
. Please help me to find out what I can about this and thank you for doing something about it.
Barbara Gregory
I live Utah Duchense county and have minerals and Ovintiv is the lesee tank batteries on location 8 wells I get standard 1/8 don’t know how they combine all 8 for a low royalty each month in not a analyst .
Cheapshot- bellow the belt tactics!!
OVINTIV,along with ENCANA/ NEW FIELD EXPLORATION Has brought in a whole other family that they are paying royaltys to… with same last name as my grandma,which is NOT my family,+ Changed my grandmothers name!!!! In addition,they will not give me the names of Thier ” so called” family members of mine!!… There’s MANY other inquiries that will be addressed
When I take them to court!!
I wanted to add Ovintiv also recently restructured the oil digs in our are & others of douche county, Utah & still has not paid out even close to what it did in 2021. In fact I & my family members have received calls & letters from companies asking to pay us to some how use our property their for 1 year & pay us $22,222.22 . Now this is suspicious since we barely get monies why would they be interested. Again please add me to this suit.