Posts Tagged ‘gas lease offer’

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

MOST CONSUMERS HAVE heard the cautionary phrase, “caveat emptor,” or “let the buyer beware.”

Turns out, for Pennsylvania landowners who are mulling natural gas lease offers, the seller better be careful too.

Deals are being sealed throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania as a result of a natural gas rush. The flurry began months ago, in part, because a Penn State University researcher and colleague in New York suggested that there might be a treasure trove of natural gas trapped within a rock formation known as the Marcellus shale.

This formation – which extends over parts of Pennsylvania and three bordering states – might contain more than 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, much of it previously inaccessible. Using updated drilling technology, however, industry watchers speculate that at least 10 percent of it could be recovered. Taking into account projected fuel prices, that makes the Marcellus worth about $1 trillion.

Consequently, drilling company representatives and other dealmakers have fanned out across Northeastern Pennsylvania, knocking on doors and making what might, at first, seem to be lucrative offers. But property owners would be wise to wait and get the facts, not quickly jump at an apparent windfall.

Experts advise that landowners don’t sign companies’ standard agreements, which tend to favor the drilling operators. Instead, negotiate.

People who had been offered $15 per acre two years ago have, in some cases, reaped new offers of as much as $2,500 per acre, according to one report.

Other equally important issues should be examined in the lease agreements.

Among the questions to consider: What percentage of royalties will be paid to the landowner? How might potential environmental impacts be addressed? Does the contract provide provisions releasing the landowner from liabilities, including failure of the drilling company to follow applicable laws?

In short, draft the best possible deal before signing on the dotted line. This unforeseen opportunity shouldn’t leave you feeling cheated.

LEARN BEFORE LEASING

For information on natural gas leases, television viewers can tune into an hour-long, call-in program at 7 tonight on the Pennsylvania Cable Network. The program also will be available on the Web at http://wpsu.org/gasrush.

A workshop on understanding gas leases is set for 7 to 9:30 p.m. June 23 at Lake-Lehman High School. Fee: $15. To register, call the Penn State Cooperative Extension office in Luzerne County at 825-1701.

Separately, gas-leasing information is available at Web sites such as

www.naturalgas.extension.psu.edu and www.pagaslease.com.

Copyright: Times Leader