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Royalty Clerk

Texas royalty audit

Is your Texas royalty check right?

We line each month of your statement up against what the Railroad Commission says your lease sold, then against the market price and the Texas payment rules. You get the gaps, in dollars, and the question to ask.
Check my statementSee a sample audit

Free to start. Takes about a minute.

AUDIT WORKSHEET

INTERSTATE 8-32 C · Midland County

SAMPLE
OWNER

  1. $A month that was never paid$2,276.66
  2. $Your share of the volume$285.33
  3. $The oil price you were paid$766.17
  4. Your decimal interestmatches
  5. ?Fees on gas$551.80
  6. –Severance taxno tax line
  7. ?Late payment$27.50
  8. –Plant productsnot checked
  9. ~Flared gas15.2 mcf
  10. ↳A change of operatorJan 2025

Likely owed $3,328.16

Worth asking $579.30

Likely owed$3,328

Sample owner. The statements are made up for this demo; the production data is real.

What an audit checks

Ten checks, in plain English

Each one is a question an owner can put to an operator. Each is compared with something outside the operator's own books.

  1. A month that was never paid

    The state shows oil or gas sold in a month, and no statement pays it.

    Compared with: State production record

  2. Your share of the volume

    Barrels and mcf on your statement, against your decimal times what the state says the lease sold.

    Compared with: State record × your decimal

  3. The oil price you were paid

    Your price against WTI, compared with your own usual gap. A gap that suddenly widens is the flag.

    Compared with: WTI monthly average (EIA)

  4. Your decimal interest

    Whether the decimal on the statement matches your lease: royalty fraction times net acres, divided by unit acres.

    Compared with: Your lease terms

  5. Fees on gas

    Processing or gathering fees taken on gas the state says never went through a plant.

    Compared with: State gas disposition codes

  6. Severance tax

    Texas takes 4.6% of oil value and 7.5% of gas value. We check your statement does not take more.

    Compared with: Comptroller rates

  7. Late payment

    Texas sets 60 days for oil and 90 days for gas after the month ends. We work out the interest owed on late months.

    Compared with: Nat. Res. Code §91.402, §91.403

  8. Plant products

    Gas that goes through a plant should also pay for the liquids taken out of it. We look for those lines.

    Compared with: Gas plant disposition

  9. Flared gas

    Gas burned instead of sold pays no royalty. We flag months where more than 3% was flared.

    Compared with: Disposition code 4 (vented or flared)

  10. A change of operator

    Payments often slip in the month an operator changes. We point to statements around the switch.

    Compared with: State operator history

How it works

Your stub on one side, the state's record on the other

The first check is the simple one and it catches the biggest money: does every month with sales have a payment, and does the barrel count match your share?

  1. Step 1: You send the statement

    A PDF or a photo of your royalty statement. Several months at once is best, because most problems show up as a change from one month to the next.

  2. Step 2: We find the same lease in the state record

    The Railroad Commission publishes barrels and mcf sold by lease and month. We match your lease name and number to it, and we use the monthly WTI average for the price.

  3. Step 3: We multiply by your decimal and compare

    The state's number times your decimal is your share of what sold. Where your statement is lower, or missing, that is a finding. Prices, deductions, tax and payment dates get their own checks.

Oil barrels, your share

STATE
RECORD

YOUR
STATEMENT

  • Nov 2024

    30.70

    30.70

  • Dec 2024

    29.46

    29.46

  • Jan 2025

    nothing paid for this month

    27.51

    —

  • Feb 2025

    matches, but paid 25 July

    23.34

    23.34

  • Mar 2025

    24.16

    24.16

State record is oil sold by the lease, times the owner's decimal 0.00097656. Sample owner. The statements are made up for this demo; the production data is real.

The first check, on the sample lease. The state number is already multiplied by the owner's decimal, so the two columns should match. § 91.402 sets the deadline for the payment.

A real result

What a Texas royalty audit found on one lease

A made-up owner on a real Midland County lease, over 24 months and 23 statements. The lease and the state numbers are real.
  • Likely owedJan 2025

    A whole month was never paid

    $2,276.66

    The state shows 28,175 bbl of oil sold in January 2025. No statement covers it. The operator changed from Endeavor to Diamondback that month.

  • Likely owedMar to May 2026

    Oil paid below the usual gap to WTI

    $766.17

    Paid $78.40, $78.95 and $79.10 a barrel when WTI averaged $91.38, $100.32 and $102.13. This owner's usual gap is $1.10 under WTI.

  • Likely owedNov 2025 to Feb 2026

    Volume 8% short

    $285.33

    Barrels on the statements are 8% below your decimal times what the state says sold. The other 19 months match.

  • Worth askingNov 2024 to Jul 2026

    Processing fees on gas

    $551.80

    From November 2024 the state shows the gas going to a transmission line, not a plant, yet every statement still deducts processing. Owed only if the lease says no deductions, so it comes with the question to ask.

  • Worth askingFeb 2025

    Paid late, no interest

    $27.50

    February 2025 was paid on 25 July 2025: oil 87 days past the deadline ($25.47 interest) and gas 57 days past ($2.03).

  • WatchJan to Feb 2026

    Gas flared

    15.2 mcf

    Small today. Flared gas pays no royalty, so we keep an eye on it.

The decimal checked out, and so did the volume in the other 19 months.

Open the full sample auditSee the lease in the state record

What it costs

Free to see if a check is worth chasing

You pay only when you want every finding, the report and the letters.

Free

$0

One statement check: the counts by level, the dollar estimate and the first finding in full. Every public lease page and the calculators.

Owner plan

$149a year, or $15 a month

Every finding in full, the audit report, operator letters, alerts on your leases and a monthly re-check when new state data lands.

Founding price $99 a year for the first 200 owners.

One-off lookback

$149

A 24-month audit of up to five leases, plus $29 for each extra lease. A single demand letter is $29.

Compare the plans on the pricing page

What you get

A report and a letter you can send

The report shows your numbers next to the state's. The letter turns each finding into one question for the operator's owner relations.
The audit report (PDF). Every finding with the state numbers next to yours, so anyone you show it to can follow it.
Operator letters (PDF). One question per finding, addressed to the operator's owner relations, ready for your signature.

Related

FAQ

Questions people ask

What is a Texas royalty audit?

A royalty audit compares what an operator paid you with what the records say your lease produced and sold. For a Texas lease that means your statements on one side and the Railroad Commission's monthly production data on the other, multiplied by your decimal interest and priced against the month's market. The gaps are the findings.

Where does the production data come from?

From the Texas Railroad Commission's production data query (PDQ), which the Commission publishes for every lease from January 1993 to the present. Oil prices are the monthly WTI average from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Deadlines and interest follow Texas Natural Resources Code sections 91.402 and 91.403.

How to read your stub

Do I need my lease or division order to run it?

No. The statement itself carries the lease name, the month, the volume, the price and your decimal. If you also have your lease, the decimal check gets sharper, and the gas fee check depends on whether your lease allows deductions. We tell you when a finding turns on a clause we have not seen.

What if the audit finds nothing?

Then it says so, check by check. On the sample lease the decimal matched, and so did the volume in 19 of 23 months. Anything the public data cannot answer is marked Open, and we do not guess at it.

How far back does it go?

The paid lookback covers 24 months. It costs $149 for up to five leases, plus $29 for each extra lease. The state record itself starts in January 2020 in our data, so a longer history is possible when you have older statements.

Can the Railroad Commission make the operator pay me?

No. The Commission's own guidance says it has no authority over royalty payments and points owners to the courthouse records in the county and to a lawyer. Under Texas Natural Resources Code section 91.404 you must send the operator written notice by mail before you can sue, and the operator then has 30 days to pay or explain in writing.

Your rights under Chapter 91

Will I have to pay before I see anything?

No. The free check gives you the counts by level, the dollar estimate and the first finding in full. The other findings, the PDF report and the letters come with a paid plan or a one-off lookback.

Is my statement kept private?

Your statements belong to your account. We use public records for the comparison, and we do not sell or share what you upload.

Read the privacy policy

Put your last statement through the ten checks

Free to start. If a month is missing or the price looks low, you will know which month and how much.

Check my statementSee the sample first

Sources

Primary sources, opened on 29 September 2026. Statute text is the current version on statutes.capitol.texas.gov.