SOGC Gives Owners Choice and Replaces the Monthly Check Run

SOGC pays thousands of royalty owners for the oil and gas produced beneath the city of Big Spring, Texas. With more than 9,000 owners and a small back office, its monthly check run had become a strain on the business. Every month meant printing and mailing thousands of checks and answering a steady stream of payment questions, while the escheatment burden kept growing.

SOGC brought in two partners to fix it.

ConnectVNA gave owners a self-service portal for their data and questions, while Choice Digital took over payments end-to-end on an Enertia-connected workflow that lets owners choose how they get paid. Within months, more than four in five owners were getting paid electronically, the manual check run was almost gone, and the team had its time back.

SOGC, LLC (formerly Sinclair Oil & Gas Company) is a privately held upstream exploration and production (E&P) company based in Salt Lake City, Utah. It operates oil and gas wells primarily in the Permian and Williston basins, with expertise in unconventional resources and horizontal wells with multistage fracture stimulation.

Payments that wouldn't scale

According to the National Association of Royalty Owners, an estimated 12 million Americans receive mineral royalty payments. For an operator, that means sending small, frequent payments to thousands of people — getting every one of them right, on time, and answering a steady stream of questions when something goes wrong.

The economics of checks are tough. A single paper check can cost over $8, and it's the payment type most exposed to fraud. Bounced checks and stale addresses also feed the escheatment problem, turning unpaid royalties into unclaimed property that operators must track and hand over to the state, with interest, penalties, and audit risk if handled wrong.

SOGC felt all of this firsthand when it drilled horizontal wells beneath Big Spring, Texas, and ended up with something unusual: royalty decks 3,000 owners deep, 10,000 individuals, and more than 9,000 owners in total. Most of them, residents new to oil and gas.

Every month, a two-person mail room stuffed and mailed 1,500 to 2,000 checks over a multi-day cycle. Owners called constantly to ask where their payment was, how to transfer ownership, or what a W-9 is. Lost and stale-dated checks were the worst part: an owner could wait 60 to 90 days, and a check found just after a monthly run meant waiting for the next one. On top of all that, sat an escheatment review touching thousands of owners.

Like most operators, SOGC runs a lean team. With about 16 people supporting thousands of owners, royalty payments and support took a real toll on the team’s capacity for strategic work like sourcing new deals, drilling more Big Spring wells, and the usual everyday responsibilities.

Choice, delivered through one connected workflow

In 2024, Jonathan Baker, Senior Landman at SOGC, set out to fix owner relations and royalty distribution. He wanted partners who could take over the day-to-day owner experience so his team could focus on growth.

He started with ConnectVNA, then brought in Choice Digital to modernize the payments themselves. ConnectVNA’s Owner Relations Portal is built specifically for oil and gas — the portal also plugs straight into an operator’s ERP and accounting systems, so data flows without manual re-entry.

Owners log into a secure hub where they can self-serve and update their own profile, e-sign forms, and open help-desk tickets, as well as access revenue details, payout history, and key documents. Additionally, SGOC designed a robust FAQ module to educate mineral owners on the whys and hows of mineral ownership, freeing up operators of these routine questions.

Choice Digital handles the money. Its API-first disbursement platform lets SOGC give owners a real choice in how they get paid: a branded prepaid card (physical or digital), a digital wallet like Venmo or PayPal, direct deposit, or a check. It all runs on compliant, regulated payment rails, with lower minimum thresholds and low-fee or free options.

Moving owners onto digital, self-managed payments solves the root causes of escheatment: fewer paper checks go undelivered or uncashed, and owners keep their own addresses current.

However, Choice Digital goes a step further with disbursements, taking escheatment off SOGC’s plate. It manages unclaimed-property tracking, owner due diligence, state-by-state filings, and assumes the associated liability. The dormancy clocks, reporting deadlines, and penalty and audit exposure all move off SOGC’s books for every payment it hands off, so a recurring compliance risk becomes someone else’s responsibility.

“We love the concepts Choice Digital brought: flexibility, options, and choice for owners, in a way our industry hasn’t explored.” —Jonathan Baker, Senior Landman, SOGC

4 in 5 owners are now paid electronically

The change landed fast. Within two revenue cycles, owners had moved off mailed paper checks and onto the methods they actually prefer, like prepaid cards, digital wallets, and direct deposit.

For SOGC, the payoff was immediate. Payments are fully outsourced, with no more manual check runs. Automated email notifications cut down “where’s my payment?” calls, and Choice Digital’s team now handles payment-support questions directly.

Owners come out ahead too. Payments arrive faster, and support is better. A lost or stale-dated check now reissues the next day and owners get the convenience of modern digital payment options.

Most importantly, SOGC got real time and cost back every month. With the payment burden gone, Baker, who ran a one-person land operation for years, finally has room for strategic work.

“It’s been more seamless than I thought it would be. We’re really happy with these strategic partnerships [ConnectVNA & Choice Digital]." —Jonathan Baker, Senior Landman, SOGC