Kevin McCoy, a land analyst at TC Energy and featured guest on the Irth webinar episode “TC Energy: Insights from Managing 16,000 Lease Payments,” has more than 20 years of experience overseeing land management for utility companies. On this episode, McCoy joined host and Irth Vice President Patrick Norris to discuss how TC Energy maintains its pipeline network’s land rights.
With a network of 57,900 miles of natural gas and 3,000 miles of crude oil pipelines, TC Energy needs a sophisticated platform to manage lease payments. McCoy explained that while TC Energy had used land management software since 1998, in 2013, it was time to procure a replacement. During the webinar, McCoy walked through the requirements, including:
• A system that could be accessed anywhere rather than installed on a device.
• Ability to handle legacy and new projects easily.
• A better way to track crucial historical land data, including acquisitions, divestitures, subdivisions, and more.
• One system for all stakeholders to access to eliminate duplicate data entry into multiple systems.
• Flexibility to handle the nitty-gritty details of 16,000 lease agreements.
• Software that continued to be supported.
McCoy also shared TC Energy’s experience transferring data from the old to the new system when they decided to work with Irth. He explained why collaboration between TC Energy and Irth was essential in this phase to ensure the best outcome.
McCoy explained the challenges faced in managing land rights on a large property over time. For example, the original property may have been a farm and was acquired 100 years ago, but over the years, it was developed into shopping complexes, business centers, or apartments.
In this very common scenario, TC Energy must update lease payments with accurate mineral rights, ownership details, and more. When TC Energy gets a request for a change in ownership, they use Irth’s customer outreach module to quickly create a ticket, attach the necessary documentation, and assign it to a land analyst, who can access the ticket in the office or on the go. Since one system tracks ownership changes, no matter who takes the call regarding the land, all details are available within one system.
TC Energy processes about 3,000 flat-rate lease payments per month, McCoy said. Using Irth’s lease payment module, TC Energy processes payments mid-month for payments due the first of the following month.
The system identifies any errors, such as if something is missing a tax identification number, which allows the TC Energy team to correct those errors before the system creates the final file. The final file is then uploaded to the accounting department’s outward-facing payment system, and then payments are generated.
In many cases, payments are split between multiple owners. Irth Land & ROW Management can handle a percentage of ownership and the ability to assign interest and payouts when they are slightly less than the amount legally defined in the agreement.
Tune in to the full episode to learn more about how TC Energy handles lease agreements and the industry changes McCoy has experienced over the last 20 years.