CNX Gas Co. filed a lawsuit Dec. 17 in a West Virginia circuit court against West Virginia State Tax Commissioner Mark Matkovich, Wyoming County Assessor Michael E. Cook and the Wyoming County Commission over the state’s tax appraisal of its operating expenses.
The plaintiff’s wells, according to the West Virginia Record, are appraised by the West Virginia Department of Revenue, State Tax Department, Property Tax Division.
According to the complaint, the Tax Department periodically circulates a survey to solicit data from oil and natural gas producers regarding operating expenses for their wells. Those expenses are used for the department’s mass appraisal system. Furthermore, the well’s gross receipts are not to exceed a maximum amount, as determined by the state.
CNX Gas, which owns wells in Wyoming County, protested its valuation, and the lawsuit says the Tax Department failed to consider its actual operating expenses and made no adjustment to the valuation.
The suit claims that when the Tax Department valued the plaintiff’s gas well values for tax year 2015, it failed to adhere to its own regulations that direct how to consider actual operating expenses. The plaintiff requests that the court find that the Wyoming County Board of Assessment Appeals incorrectly upheld the valuation of the its gas wells, that the court fix the value of the gas wells for the 2015 tax year, and other such relief.