The 2024 budget for the Permian Basin Royalty Trust(PBT) was released last month on February 29th in the annual report for the trust after a small delay.
They have some big investors behind them and you know they did not want to deliver such news to them. It would very damming or they may have already been on board. Who knows either way they think they can beat it or at least come out on top. They hold a lot of cards that are not on the table. Explaining the capital spent and the production obtained I would not want to do so.
Would have been smart for Blackbeard to come clean now with oh it was an oversight. Now they have a ongoing battle that will the Trust with no other course of action but monitor the hell out of them,.
That's how it usually goes in situations like this which leads me to believe the discovery will show way more than $15M. It's an odd decision by Blackbeard to say the least.
Suit was dismissed without prejudice which leaves the option for Argent to refile and based on everything I expect them to soon. The judge that this was under doesn't allow anything to sit for long and the hard deadline for expansion of the lawsuit was very quick. They also may need to move this to state vs federal court depending on what all is added to the lawsuit. Last I spoke with Argent they felt their case was extremely strong based on ConocoPhillips historical charges to the trust, comps in charged made to non-op mineral owners the past few years, and other items not related to the trust such as employee comp.
The process audit that reviewed CAPEX was halted due to blocking of materials and lack of communication from Blackbeard. Very unusual for a trustee to bring a lawsuit against an operator unless the operator isn't working with them to resolve issues. It seems from the lawsuit language and timeline Argent found enough to raise the issues and ask for more supporting documents like other non-op charges and midstream data to reconcile pricing against gather fees.
Blackbeard had hopes to IPO in the near future and NGP would want to divest from their fully developed assets under the operator. A lawsuit that is dragged out for years isn't good for either of those.
Thanks for the information.
They have some big investors behind them and you know they did not want to deliver such news to them. It would very damming or they may have already been on board. Who knows either way they think they can beat it or at least come out on top. They hold a lot of cards that are not on the table. Explaining the capital spent and the production obtained I would not want to do so.
Would have been smart for Blackbeard to come clean now with oh it was an oversight. Now they have a ongoing battle that will the Trust with no other course of action but monitor the hell out of them,.
That's how it usually goes in situations like this which leads me to believe the discovery will show way more than $15M. It's an odd decision by Blackbeard to say the least.
Thanks great review. Wasn't the suit dismissed?
Suit was dismissed without prejudice which leaves the option for Argent to refile and based on everything I expect them to soon. The judge that this was under doesn't allow anything to sit for long and the hard deadline for expansion of the lawsuit was very quick. They also may need to move this to state vs federal court depending on what all is added to the lawsuit. Last I spoke with Argent they felt their case was extremely strong based on ConocoPhillips historical charges to the trust, comps in charged made to non-op mineral owners the past few years, and other items not related to the trust such as employee comp.
Any idea when the full audit is complete?
The process audit that reviewed CAPEX was halted due to blocking of materials and lack of communication from Blackbeard. Very unusual for a trustee to bring a lawsuit against an operator unless the operator isn't working with them to resolve issues. It seems from the lawsuit language and timeline Argent found enough to raise the issues and ask for more supporting documents like other non-op charges and midstream data to reconcile pricing against gather fees.
Wow, so this could go on quite a while.
Blackbeard had hopes to IPO in the near future and NGP would want to divest from their fully developed assets under the operator. A lawsuit that is dragged out for years isn't good for either of those.