ConocoPhillips has sold 43,000 net acres in South Texas for $1.2 billion, part of the company's ongoing asset pruning after its Marathon Oil acquisition. NGP-backed Ensign Natural Resources II bought the Eagle Ford position in a July transaction. For mineral owners underneath those acres, the operator may change while the royalty checks keep coming. Under Social Security Administration guidance, nonoperating oil and gas royalties generally do not count as earnings under the retirement earnings test, so a mineral owner can collect royalties and early benefits at the same time, while a working interest that shares in well development costs is treated as a business and can be subject to the test. Royalties remain taxable ordinary income and can push up to 85% of Social Security benefits into taxable income above the $34,000 threshold for single filers.
ConocoPhillipsConocoPhillips sold 43,000 South Texas Eagle Ford acres for $1.2 billion as part of asset pruning after its Marathon Oil acquisition.
Marathon Petroleum CorpNGP-backed Ensign Natural Resources II bought the 43,000-acre Eagle Ford position in the July transaction.
