SWN Owners

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Contact Info

Please note that we can only discuss account information with the parties listed on the account.

ATTN: Corporate Land
P.O. Box 12359
Spring, TX 77391-2359

Owner Relations Line: 866-322-0801
Owner Relations Fax: 832-796-4757
Owner Relations Email: ownerrelations@swn.com

Letters and Forms

Division Orders

If you receive a division order from SWN please confirm the information provided is correct and sign and return the form. If updates are needed, please provide this in the space provided at the bottom of the form.

A Division Order is a document mailed to owners with interest in a producing well. It provides your decimal ownership interest in that specific well, and confirms current contact information. All owners listed on the account must sign the Division Order before returning it to Southwestern Energy.

The Division Order also states whether the account is in a pay or suspense status.

This is a type of Division Order that contains additional language which indemnifies Southwestern Energy, wherein the owner agrees to reimburse any funds paid incorrectly.

A common example of when an Indemnifying Division Order would be used is when interest is transferred to heirs based on an Affidavit of Heirship, rather than probate, as an Affidavit does not actually transfer title.

A Transfer Order is a document similar to a Division Order, but confirms a change of ownership has been processed.

See Why is my account in suspense?

Unclaimed Property Letter

See What is unclaimed property?

Calculating Interest

Royalty Interest

Royalties are payments made on production. These payments are calculated using a combination of information contained in the Lease and the Unit that the acreage has been pooled into.

(Pooled Tract Acres / Total Unit Acres) x Lease Royalty Rate x Ownership in the tract = Royalty Interest

Example: Jim and Mary own 30 mineral acres and are leased at a 12.5% royalty rate.
Each owns 50% of the 30 acres, and the unit size is 400 acres.

(30 / 400) x 1/8 x 50% = .00468750 for each

Apportionment

The rule of apportionment is established on the principle that leased lands, specific to oil and gas, should share in the royalties derived from that lease, regardless of the location of the well. If land under a lease agreement is severed, interest must be shared by the landowners in proportion to their interests in the land under said lease.

Apportionment Example:

Continuing the example from above, let’s assume that Jim was the original Lessor of the 30 acres, and he later sold 10 of those acres to Mary:

Tract A: 10 acres
Tract B: 20 Acres
Total Lease Acres = 30 acres

Lease Ownership after sale (apportionment percentage):

Tract A: 10/30 = .33333333
Mary owns 33.33% of the lease

Tract B: 20/30 = .66666667
Jim owns 66.67% of the lease

This apportionment percentage becomes an additional factor to the standard royalty interest calculation.

So if Mary’s Tract A is pooled into a 400 acre unit, while Jim’s Tract B remains outside of a producing unit, both would still receive royalties as per their apportionment percentage:

(Pooled Tract Acres / Total Unit Acres) x Lease Royalty Rate x Apportionment Percentage = Royalty Interest

Mary: 10/400 x 12.5% x 33.33% = 0.00104156
Jim: 10/400 X 12.5% X 66.67% = 0.00208344

Accounting Information

Owner Number

Southwestern Energy assigns each owner a unique number. Please provide your owner number and contact information on all communications so that we can properly identify your account.

Change of Address

Please complete a Change of Address Form. All owners listed on the account must sign. If you are signing as a Power of Attorney for another individual, please provide a copy of your Power of Attorney Agreement.

Click here to print the Change of Address form.

Adding of Changing Name

Documentation needed for name changes:

Name Change – Reason	Documents Needed
Marriage, Divorce, Other	Marriage Certificate Divorce Decree (re-instating maiden name) Name Change Court Decree
Entity Name Change	Certificate of Name Change W-9 Form providing new Tax ID
Entity Merger	Certificate of Merger W-9 Form providing new Tax ID

Southwestern Energy pays owners based on record title. Therefore, you must prepare a deed, assignment or other instrument conveying title to you and your spouse, and record it in the county where the property is located.

Click here to view the Change of Ownership form.

Payment

Direct Deposit

Direct Deposit (also known as Automatic Check Deposit)

Click here to print the Direct Deposit Enrollment form.

Issue of Checks

Checks are typically issued on or around the 25th of each month. Please allow at least 10 business days for postal delivery. Setting up Direct Deposit can eliminate the delay that standard mail imposes.

If you did not receive a royalty payment, your account may be in suspense. It is also possible that you have not accrued enough funds to meet the state minimum royalty amount to issue a check. This amount is $25 for most of the states in which Southwestern Energy currently operates.

If you did not receive a lease payment, please ensure you have provided us with any updates from the time the lease was originally signed. If the owner does not inform us of a change in ownership or address, we are unable to update our records.

Please note, once the initial Primary Term of the lease ends, the lease will either expire or enter into a Secondary Term. In the Secondary Term, the lease is active as long as there are operations or production, and no extension payment is needed.

Payments may be suspended in the event of a title dispute, assignment of interest, notice of death, transfer or sale of property, or having an unknown or bad address due to returned mail.

Below is a list of suspense codes:

Code	Suspense Reason
STI	Title Issues
SBA	Bad Address
STR	Transfer Pending
SDC	Deceased
SLG	Legal / Litigation
SUD	Unsigned Division Order or Transfer Order

You may contact Owner Relations and request for the check to be re-issued. Please allow at least 10 business days for standard mail delivery prior to determining that the check is lost. Checks older than 180 days will be voided, and the funds placed back onto the owner account.

Royalty Check Amount and Statements

Please check your online account with EnergyLink.

Some factors that can cause monthly royalty payment amounts to vary:

Monthly price fluctuations due to market conditions
Production volumes change monthly
New well added to the unit
Well is Shut-In for operations or weather
State regulatory or contractual changes that affect royalty
Ad-valorem or Severance tax deductions may have been applied

There are many possible reasons for differences in royalty payments including:

Other individual may own additional interest
Owners may be subject to different tax implications
Prior voided checks are being re-issued
Suspended funds are being released

The Division Order provides the total decimal interest for the owner in the well, and this is shown as the “Lease Decimal” on your Check Detail Statement. The “Settlement Decimal” on your Check Detail Statement reflects Southwestern Energy’s portion of your royalty payment when there are additional working interest partners in the well.

Well Information

Declaration of Pooling

The original lease ownership and information is shown on the Declaration of Pooling for identification purposes. Ownership changes are updated within Southwestern Energy’s lease and royalty payment systems for any future payments. Updating the lease agreement for an ownership change is unnecessary.

The Lease will always display the original Lessor for identification purposes, such as when listed on a Pooling document. If there is a change in ownership, it is the owner’s responsibility to supply the appropriate recorded documents. Southwestern Energy’s records can then be updated for any future payments, but the original Lease document will remain unchanged.

Cross-Unit Well

A new well may be drilled through more than one existing unit. The share of production is allocated to each owner based on the percentage that the well crosses into each unit.

Change of Ownership

Please reference the chart below to determine documents you need to submit to Southwestern Energy for ownership changes. Once documentation is received, please allow time for review and processing. Items are working in the order they are received. Transfer Orders (or Indemnifying Division Orders for Affidavits) will be mailed upon completion of the ownership transfer.

Ownership Change	Documents Needed
Sale of Interest	Deed recorded in the county where the property is located W-9 for the new owner
Death of Owner	Death Certificate Probate documents, if applicable W-9 for each heir Coversheet with your contact information so we may request any additional documentation needed after reviewing the account
Bankruptcy – Chapter 11 or Chapter 7	Order from Bankruptcy Court which designates how payments should be made W-9 for new payee
Trust / Partnership is created	Trust or Partnership Agreement Recorded Deed into the Trust or Partnership W-9 for Trust
Trust / Partnership is terminated	Dissolution of Trust or Partnership Recorded Deed to the beneficiary W-9 for Beneficiary
Change in Trustee	Document where successor trustee was appointed
Transfer to a Trust	Certificate of Trust, which contains information naming the Trustees and their authorization Tax Information for the Trust (EIN Form from IRS) Deed into the Trust recorded in the county where the property is located

Disclaimer: SWN does not provide deeds or templates for any conveyance instruments for ownership changes. Please contact an Oil and Gas attorney in your area to assist with this process.

Unclaimed Property

Unclaimed property is property that has been abandoned or lost by its rightful owner(s) for an extended amount of time. Each state has enacted laws that include the criteria for identifying, reporting, and remitting unclaimed property and having it transferred to the state if no one claims it.

Please fill out the letter and return it to our office immediately in order to re-establish contact and prevent the monies from being remitted to the state. If there is a return date on the letter which you will not be able to meet, please also contact our Owner Relations at (866) 322-0801 or ownerrelations@swn.com.

After the monies are remitted, the state becomes the custodian of the unclaimed property. You must contact the state directly to make a claim. If you haven’t already, please also contact Southwestern Energy so that we may research and advise you on what is needed to update the account to an active status and prevent future remittances to the state.

Lease

Lease Payments

See Why didn’t I receive a check this month?

See How do I make a change to my ownership?

Southwestern Energy attempted to send you a Lease payment, but it was returned. Please confirm your information so that we can resend your payment. Lease payments are sent by certified mail, and a signature is required.

Lease Documents

An oil and gas lease is a written agreement where someone owning the right to underground gas, oil or other substances (the “Lessor”) allows another party (the “Lessee”) to explore for, drill, and produce oil or gas on specified lands for a certain period of time, in exchange for the payment of royalties. The lessor may own those rights because it owns the surface, or the surface owners may have sold those rights to someone else in the past. The lease provides a legal description of the property covered, the amount of royalty to be paid (typically expressed as a fraction or percentage), the length of the lease, and the rights and obligations that the Lessor and Lessee have agreed to.

The Memorandum is a brief summary of important aspects of the Lease. A Memorandum of a Lease may be filed in the court house in place of the entire Lease agreement.

Mortgage

A Mortgage Subordination is a document that prevents an Oil and Gas Lease from becoming invalid when a Mortgage is at risk or in default. This applies only when the Mortgage is taken prior to the Lease.

Taxes

County Tax

Southwestern Energy supplies the counties with updated ownership information on a yearly basis. If you feel that there is an error on your tax statement, please call the county tax office that sent you the invoice.

Delinquent Taxes

1099 Form

No later than January 31st of the succeeding year. If the 31st falls on Saturday or Sunday, the IRS allows for mailing the following Monday.

There are several reasons you may not have received a 1099, including:

Your gross revenues were less than the minimum royalties threshold of $10
Your gross revenues were less than the minimum “anything else” threshold of $600
You did not receive any revenue for the reportable year
Your 1099 was mailed to the address we have on file, which may not be your current address
1099s are not issued to corporations or exempt entities

Per IRS requirements, the 1099 reports the gross amount before taxes and other deductions. Please refer to the back of the 1099 for more detail — this will assist you with reconciling your gross and net amounts received.

Southwestern Energy Company cannot issue tax advice. If you need further instruction on how to reflect your 1099-MISC on your tax return, please consult a tax professional.

W-9 and Backup Withholding Tax

The IRS requires Southwestern Energy to back-up withhold 24% from an owner’s payments when there is not a Social Security Number or Tax Identification Number on the owner account. A completed IRS Form W-9 must be provided in order to add this information to your account and remove the back-up withholding.

Form W-9

Click here for a printable Form W-9.

Please mail, fax or email your Form W-9 to the following:

Southwestern Energy
ATTN: Corporate Land
P.O. Box 12359
Spring, TX 77391-2359
Owner Relations Line: 866-322-0801
Owner Relations Fax: 832-796-4757
Owner Relations email: ownerrelations@swn.com