Posts Tagged ‘Chip Lines-Burgess’

By Rory Sweeneyrsweeney@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

The yearlong wait was worth it for Wyoming County landowners who didn’t get a chance to sign a gas lease last year.

In a deal with Chesapeake Energy announced on Tuesday, they’ll receive almost double the bonus offered previously and an additional bump in the royalties they keep. The five-year deal offers $5,750 per acre immediately as a sign-up bonus, 20 percent royalties and a multiyear extension option.

The Wyoming County landowners group represents about 37,000 acres that haven’t been leased yet, and if all property owners sign up, the deal, in bonus money alone, is worth about $212.75 million.

Chesapeake officials were hoping to have a lease signing this week, but the landowners don’t think that will be possible logistically, group secretary Chip Lines-Burgess said. “The one question that comes up is, ‘What happens if we’re on vacation next week when this comes about?’ ”

After months of relative silence on leasing in the Marcellus Shale, a layer of gas-laden rock about mile underground that centers on northern Pennsylvania, interest is again heating up.

The agreement is somewhat bittersweet for members of the group who leased last year before the financial crash with Colorado-based Citrus Energy.

Lines-Burgess’s 42 acres in Meshoppen were among those roughly 35,000 acres. They received a $2,850-per-acre bonus, minus consultant payments, for a five-year lease with 17-percent royalties. If the lands aren’t drilled within five years, there are two one-year extensions each for $1,000 per acre.

“Yes, sure, it’s a tough pill to swallow … but who knew?” she said. “If it goes a year down the road, it might go to God only knows what, or it may not. … You just have to make a decision that when you sign on the dotted line, (you’re) happy.”

She said her family was able to pay off their farm. She remained on as secretary, as did other members of the group’s core committee, because “we just felt it was our … duty to make sure this happened.”

“Our county consists of a lot of people in their golden years. … We have a lot of people who have a lot of acreage and needed something. If this wonderful lease brings those people more comfort in their golden years … that’s the ultimate,” she said. “Their grandchildren, with this, won’t have to worry about what’s in this lease.”

The deal comes as groups in Susquehanna County are signing similar leases and about a month after the Northern Wayne Property Owners Alliance signed perhaps the first lease in the state with 20-percent royalties.

The South West Ross Township Property Group held a members-only meeting on Tuesday night, and member Ken Long acknowledged that the group is “in negotiations with a major gas company” and that “the monetary offers are in the ballpark of what” the Wyoming County landowners received.

He declined to confirm or deny that the company is Chesapeake.

It’s unclear what caused offers to rise so much so fast, but there are theories. “There’s been a lot of discussion about that,” said Lines-Burgess, who speculated that it might be a reaction to potential legislation that would affect leasing rights.

“We just don’t know what they (gas companies) are seeing. … Obviously, they have a plan, and we’re part of it,” she said.

Long said he believed the education efforts of land groups helped. “I would say that a lot of the efforts of the groups that have formed … are kind of paying dividends now. I think we’ve raised the standards of the leases, and we’re starting to see the increases in the bonus payment and royalties,” he said, adding that companies might be scrambling to get a foothold in the shale as more and more of the land is leased.

Copyright: Times Leader

After ’08 deal dies, Wyoming County Landowners expect Chesapeake Energy deal.

By Rory Sweeneyrsweeney@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

A year after the financial meltdown sank a lucrative gas-lease offer, the Wyoming County Landowners group has come to terms with another company, Chesapeake Energy, for what is expected to be a record deal.

Neither side has released details yet, but Chip Lines-Burgess, secretary of the landowners’ group, expected an announcement late Tuesday evening.

“No one in the region has seen this amount of money,” she said. “We’re excited about the offer we have received, and it’s going to be a huge impact for our entire region financially. … Hopefully, it comes to fruition. … This is what we’ve been striving for the last year and a half.”

She added that lease signings could come as soon as a facility is secured that is large enough to hold the expected 600 to 800 landowners involved.

The group is composed of roughly 37,000 acres in Wyoming, Bradford, Susquehanna, Sullivan and Lackawanna counties. A minimal amount of Luzerne County acreage is also involved, Lines-Burgess said.

Only those who have recently re-signed are currently members, she said, though other members can re-join by filling out paperwork on the group’s Web site. New members also might be considered, though Lines-Burgess was unsure what the demarcations will be. She also noted that while current Lackawanna County members will remain in, it’s unclear if new landowners from that county will be accepted.

In August 2008, the group made headlines by signing a lease with Colorado-based Citrus Energy, but the worldwide financial crisis caused the deal to fall through quickly. Ironically, Citrus was chosen after it beat an original offer from Chesapeake.

The landowners regrouped quickly and began aggressively courting companies, creating a solicitous Web site and attending two industry expos. Most members chipped in $30 to cover various expenses, including creating their own roughly 40-page lease with items worked in that are usually left for individual landowners to add or subtract as addendums.

“We knew that we wanted a company that could afford to buy 37,000 acres … that could not only buy us, but drill us,” Lines-Burgess said. “In order to do that, we knew we had to go for the cream of the crop. … Within the last month, it has just heated up tremendously.”

Chesapeake is one of the largest natural-gas producers in the country and the largest leaseholder in the Marcellus Shale, a layer of gas-laden rock about a mile underground that’s centered on northern Pennsylvania.

Lines-Burgess said Marty L. Byrd, the vice president for land in Chesapeake’s Eastern Division, flew into the region Monday evening to meet with members of the landowners’ group Tuesday morning. He is expected to meet with the group’s core membership today, and leases could be signed by the end of the month, she said.

“There was a little give and take all the way around,” she said, citing the company’s requirement of an increased drilling-unit size. The group estimates about 100 well pads will be created throughout the entire acreage.

TO LEARN MORE

To join the landowners’ group, read its lease and find other information about the group, go to its Web site at: www.pamarcellusshale.com

Rory Sweeney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7418.

Copyright: Times Leader