February 18, 2002; SJT Distributions Resume

After two months of declaring no distributions, the trustee of Buy recommended San Juan Basin Royalty Trust declared a positive distribution of $0.01 per SJT unit.  We are impressed that implied monthly volume was practically the highest in 50 years at 131 million cubic feet per day.  Front-end loaded development spending also hit a record $0.08 per unit.  Higher-than-projected development reduces current distribution, yet at the same time it adds to future distributions by boosting producing capacity. 

Natural Gas Royalty Trusts succeeds Meter Reader Tables as our weekly analysis of the high quality income securities.  During the past week, the increase in natural gas futures boosted present value 2% each for the three trusts and boosted Next Twelve Months distribution 4%, 4%, and 2% for CRT, HGT and SJT respectively.