Perhaps we should respect Pioneer and Woodside’s desire to make money and attempt to reach a new agreement all with clean hands.
So why not work up the following settlement agreement:
(1) PXD & Woodside divide up $250M to be paid and to flow through the trust.
(2) JPM will make a 1 time payment to reimburse all trust management expenses in the last 3 years to flow through the trust. Plus have an agreement where trustee will comb over trust affairs in more detail in the future.
(3) Let PXD and Woodside remain as operators of Midway under a new agreement where the trust gets a 20% ORRI (in 4/8th’s) and Woodside and PXD each get a 40% WI (in 4/8th’s). (PXD to keep their 100% of the other 4/8th’s)
(4) In this new operating agreement include a requirement of PXD and/or Woodside to complete a minimum of 5 wells in attempt to find the 192 BCF of gas almost worth $2B with a 31% chance of finding it. Plus if commercially viable after 5 wells they need to drill more. (We need to define commercially viable in the agreement)
I think this type of agreement will make the trust happy and will also make PXD and Woodside happy as I can see how they may seem burdened with the 90% paid to the trust. They need some motivation and we know money can be a motivation! Not saying what any of them allegedly did was in any way acceptable but that we need to put this behind us all and get down to what we all like doing best. Making money!
Time to “get the well drilled” ;)
-Mike
*Disclaimer: My post are possibly fictional and/or are my opinion. I assume no liability, nor do I guarantee any stock's performance. Please do your own due diligence.
AI
