News Release
San Juan Basin Royalty Trust Declares No Cash Distribution for March 2026
DALLAS, Texas, March 20, 2026 Argent Trust Company, as the trustee (the “Trustee”) of the San Juan Basin Royalty Trust (the “Trust”) (NYSE: SJT), today 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 incurred during prior periods for the Trust’s royalty interest burdening the subject interests (“Subject Interests”), 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. The balance of cumulative excess production costs is currently approximately $6,186,819 gross ($4,640,115 net to the Trust), a decrease in the deficit of $2,051,072 gross ($1,538,305 net to the Trust) from last month’s reporting period. Hilcorp will continue to charge the balance of excess production costs to the Trust’s net proceeds each month. Until the balance is paid in full, the Trust will not receive royalty income as all net proceeds will be applied to the balance of excess production costs. No cash distributions will be made by the Trust until future net proceeds are sufficient to (a) repay the balance of excess production costs, accrued as a result of Hilcorp San Juan L.P.’s drilling of two new horizontal wells in 2024, (b) replenish a reserve in the amount of $2,000,000, and (c) repay the principal and interest on the Trust’s line of credit at Texas Bank (“Line of Credit”), after which time, the Trust will resume distributions of the royalty income to the holders of the Trust’s units of beneficial interest.
Hilcorp reported $6,352,562 of total revenue from the Subject Interests for the production month of January 2026, consisting of $6,220,448 of gas revenues, $132,114 of oil revenues.
For the Subject Interests, Hilcorp reported $4,301,489 of production costs (excluding the balance of excess production costs) for the production month of January 2026, consisting of $3,155,715 of lease operating expenses, $643,665 of severance taxes, and $502,110 of capital costs.
Based upon information provided to the Trust by Hilcorp, gas volumes for the Subject Interests for January 2026 totaled 2,104,891 Mcf (2,338,767 MMBtu), as compared to 2,117,242 Mcf (2,352,491 MMBtu) for December 2025. Dividing gas revenues by production volume yielded an average gas price for January 2026 of $2.96 per Mcf ($2.66 per MMBtu), a decrease of $0.33 per Mcf ($0.30 per MMBtu) as compared to the average gas price for December 2025 of $3.29 per Mcf ($2.96 per MMBtu).
This month’s Trust administrative expenses totaled $187,019. The increase in administrative expenses was attributable to differences in timing of the receipt and payment of certain expenses by the Trust. Interest income in the amount of $53 and a draw of $183,665 from the Line of Credit will be used to pay the balance of Trust administrative expenses for the month of January which will bring the outstanding principal balance on the Line of Credit to $750,513.
Pursuant to the Amended and Restated Royalty Trust Indenture, dated December 12, 2007 (as amended on February 15, 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. Cash reserves were utilized to pay interest accrued on the Line of Credit each month from July 2025 through February 2026. In March 2026, cash reserves in the amount of $3,301 will be utilized to pay interest on the Line of Credit, which will bring the balance of cash reserves maintained by the Trust to $14,257.
On February 18, 2026 Hilcorp provided the Trust with its capital project plan for the Subject Interests for calendar year 2026 (the “2026 Plan”). Under the 2026 Plan, Hilcorp estimates approximately $14.0 million in capital expenditures for 2026 across 32 projects. Of the total 2026 budget, about $11.5 million will be allocated to nine new vertical drill projects in the Mesaverde, Mancos, and Dakota formations and six new horizontal drill projects in the Mancos formation. Hilcorp subsequently informed the Trust that the 2026 Plan only includes budgeted expenses related to drilling costs for the six new horizontal wells; completion costs for the six new horizontal wells are expected to be included in Hilcorp’s capital