San Juan Basin Royalty Trust Declares No Cash Distribution for Nov. 2024

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(San Juan Basin Royalty Trust, 18.Nov.2024) — Argent Trust Company, as the trustee (the “Trustee”) of the San Juan Basin Royalty Trust (the “Trust”),  reported that it will not declare a monthly cash distribution to the holders of its Units of beneficial interest (the “Unit Holders”) due to excess production costs for the Trust’s subject interests (“Subject Interests”) during the production month of Sep. 2024, as well as continued low natural gas pricing. Excess production costs occur when production costs and capital expenditures exceed the gross proceeds for a certain period. Excess production costs for this reporting period are due primarily to significant lease operating expenses and capital expenditures associated with Hilcorp San Juan L.P.‘s 2024 capital project plan.

Hilcorp reported $2,853,533 of total revenue from the Subject Interests for the production month of September 2024, consisting of $2,651,297 of gas revenues and $202,236 of oil revenues. For the Subject Interests, Hilcorp reported $5,566,414 of production costs (excluding excess production costs) for the production month of Sep. 2024, consisting of $2,592,399 of lease operating expenses, $362,225 of severance taxes, and $2,611,790 of capital costs.

Hilcorp will charge the excess production costs of approximately $17,863,330 gross ($13,397,497 net to the Trust) to the next month’s distribution. No cash distributions will be made by the Trust until future net proceeds are sufficient to pay Trust liabilities and replenish cash reserves. This month’s Trust administrative expenses totaled $59,870. The decrease in administrative expenses was attributable to differences in timing of the receipt and payment of certain expenses by the Trust. Interest income received by the Trust in the amount of $4,301 will be applied to cover a portion of this month’s Trust administrative expenses, with cash reserves utilized to pay the remaining administrative expenses.

Based upon information provided to the Trust by Hilcorp, gas volumes for the subject interests for Sep. 2024 totaled 1,869,291 Mcf (2,076,989 MMBtu), as compared to 1,922,538 Mcf (2,136,153 MMBtu) for Aug. 2024. Dividing gas revenues by production volume yielded an average gas price for Sep. 2024 of $1.42 per Mcf ($1.28 per MMBtu), as compared to an average gas price for Aug. 2024 of $1.79 per Mcf ($1.61 per MMBtu).

Pursuant to the Amended and Restated Royalty Trust Indenture, dated 12 Dec. 2007 (as amended on 15 Feb. 2024, by the First Amendment to the Amended and Restated Royalty Trust Indenture), the Trustee is authorized to retain, in its sole discretion, a cash reserve for payment of Trust liabilities that are contingent or uncertain or otherwise not currently due and payable. To cover Trust expenses during any period of revenue shortfall, which has resulted and may continue to result from lower commodity prices and increased capital expenditures and lease operating expenses under Hilcorp’s 2024 capital project plan for the Subject Interests, the Trustee increased the cash reserves in March and Apr. 2024, such that total cash reserves were $1.8 million as of 30 Apr. 2024. Interest income and cash reserves were utilized to pay Trust administrative expenses each month from May through Oct. 2024. This month, cash reserves in the amount of $55,569 will be utilized to cover the balance of Trust administrative expenses which will bring the balance of cash reserves maintained by the Trustee to $961,566. Prior to any future distributions to Unit Holders, the Trustee plans to replenish the cash reserves and continue to increase the cash reserves to $2mn.

Production from the Subject Interests continues to be gathered, processed, and sold under market sensitive and customary agreements, as recommended for approval by the Trust’s Consultant. The Trustee continues to engage with Hilcorp regarding its ongoing accounting and reporting to the Trust, and the Trust’s third-party compliance auditors continue to audit payments made by Hilcorp to the Trust, inclusive of sales revenues, production costs, capital expenditures, adjustments, actualizations, and recoupments. The Trust’s auditing process has also included detailed analysis of Hilcorp’s pricing and rates charged. As previously disclosed in the Trust’s filings, these revenues and costs (along with all costs) are the subject of the Trust’s ongoing comprehensive audit process by the Trust’s professional consultants and outside counsel to analyze compliance with all the underlying operative Trust agreements and evaluate potential remedies in the event there is suspected non-compliance.

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ENERGY ANALYTICS INSTITUTE (EAI) https://energy-analytics-institute.org

Energy Analytics Institute (EAI), formerly LatinPetroleum (dba LatinPetroleum.com), is a Houston-established private organization with a satellite presence in Calgary and Mexico City. Since 1999, EAI has been a leader in energy news coverage of Latin America in particular. Coverage, run out of Latin America, now spans the world and encompasses nearly all energy and energy-related sectors.

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