Calculation of acreage and potential bonus amount…maybe

If you have a grain of salt handy, hang on to it, because I’m going to give you some information with which you might want to take it.

A couple of readers have asked if I know what the formula will be for calculating their upfront gas lease bonus. In a word, no. However, I read several blogs, online forums and discussions daily and some residents in other parts of Tarrant county have mentioned this is how they calculated their bonus. (N.B. This information is only for “entertainment” purposes only and may not be the actual manner in which your property and bonus is calculated)

Most people tend to know the square feet of their property but may not know how that translates in terms of acreage. To convert square feet to acres use the following. Take the square footage of your property and divide it by 43560 (1 acre is equal to 43560 sq. ft.) For example, if your property is 8000 sq. ft. , take that number and divide it by 43560. 8000 / 43560 = .1836 or .18 (of an acre).

Next, multiply that acreage amount by whatever was the negotiated signing bonus of the contract. So if a community was offered $7500 per acre then you would multiply .18 by 7500. In this example, 7500 * .18 = $1350. Using this formula, the upfront bonus would be $1350.

Now, here’s the kicker. This formula only works if your property is a perfect square. If your property is an some shape other than a perfect square (triangular, L-shape, polygon, trapezoid, etc) then you will need to use other more complicated formulas for each kind of shape. This means you’ll probably need to bring down those old high school geometry books from the attic and brush up on some of those lessons you thought you’d never use again!