Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Lorrene Wagner on September 19, 2012 at 11:02am

Can someone out there tell me what exactly a memorandum is and the legal implications.  mine is 4 pages but does say much but it is signed by a representative from adapt, Lorenzo Cola.

Permalink Reply by george yilit on September 19, 2012 at 11:18am

If you are talking about a memo. that was filed in the courthouse, I think that it basically points "everyone" on notice that your property is subject to a lease but if they filed it I think that it means that it has been executed in which Halcon or whoever filed the lease should have to pay you.  As I have indicated we may be filing a class action suit against Halcon/Adapt so if anyone is interested in coming on board let me know.

Permalink Reply by Mark Thompson on September 20, 2012 at 1:47am

Pumpjack

Obviously, you have an inside track on all of this....  Give us your scenerio of how this is going to play out.  Will those who have been leased by shell or halcon in venango likely see drilling soon?   You made a prediction earlier in the year that range was going to be acquired by shell, do you stand by that?  Your point on Halcon using middlemen like adapt, caffey, and MSLG so they do not assume liability is excellent.  The big question is, What is next? Both for landowners wanting to lease and those few who have been leased and paid.

Permalink Reply by ShaleAdvice (Steven C. Townsend) on September 23, 2012 at 10:26am

Maybe you should be looking at the middlemen.  Agents? Attorneys? Fiduciary Duty? Conflict of Interests? 

 

George,

You should seriously consider acting on your first thought.  Until some of you landowners stand up and push back, it will be more of the same. 

Permalink Reply by Lorrene Wagner on September 19, 2012 at 12:14pm

great photo that I would like to share with all oil and gas men.  What do you think?

Permalink Reply by timothy j anthony on September 19, 2012 at 12:41pm

get em lorrene...Im in the timber business and people like to say timber guys are crooks (and some are) but these gas people make us look like we have wings and a halo :)

 

Permalink Reply by Tony Settle on October 2, 2012 at 10:13am

I have property in Rockland Twp and signed a lease with Adapt Energy back in March, of this year. I was to be paid by July 27th, but on July 25th, when I contacted my landman, he advised that the lease was not signed correctly and he needed another month. The landman (CJ Tibbs) sent a new lease, which I signed and returned. The new lease stated payment would be sent on or by Aug 31st, 2012, which I have yet to receive. I attempted to call CJ Tibbs, ADAPT Energy, and email them, but discovered all phones have been disconnected. I am planning on joining the Venango Land Group and have M&P help me sort this out, but have not done so yet.

 

Permalink Reply by Samuel J. Orr on October 13, 2012 at 5:31pm

If you have any brains at all, have nothing to do with ADAPT. They were working as a surrogate for Halcon in Venango County. I assume you know Halcon bailed on thousands of acres of "leases" in Venango County just as they did in Mercer County. I think you will be hard pressed to find any positive comments on this website about ADAPT. I have searched e-facts for Venango County and I see no permits issued or pending under the name ADAPT. My search was from jan. 1, 2010 thru Oct. 11, 2012. There is someone who posts misinformation using the name Robert Vepich. That name is rather obviously a pseudonym. I suspect the real identity of this person to be an agent or employee of ADAPT,  though I have no proof at all of this.

Permalink Reply by Jim Litwinowicz on October 14, 2012 at 4:03am

Adapt is a land services companythat works for several companies including Halcon. They do leasing, ROW negotiating, title work and other things. I do not know the details of their contract with Halcon. they may be paid by billable hours or on a commision basis per acre leased. Either way they are out a ton of money. They may even had bonuses for targets reached. I am sure they are also dissapointed in Halcon's actions as this will affect also them in future business activity. They may have shut down offices since they are losing a lot of money on these actions.

They should do a better job communicating with those left out of the deal. It would benefit them to meet with people and try to work with them or at least explain their position. Perhaps their contract with Halcon prevents them from doing so. A lot of these contracts have confidentiality clauses.

 

Permalink Reply by Samuel J. Orr on October 14, 2012 at 10:11am

To Lorrene Wagner and Jim Litwinowicz:  Jim, after reading your recent post and then going to ADAPT Energy's website I must say that I do not really know exactly what ADAPT does or does not do. I recommend you go to their site and click on the headings "operation" and "leasing" and the others if you wish. If you believe the nonsense on this site, you would conclude that this company is a highly ethical company imbued with Christian virtues. My own view is that Halcon purposely interposed ADAPT into the "leasing" process as a poorly funded intermediary from which Halcon could cherry-pick such properties as it wished to pay bonus payments on. The mechanism would be that Halcon and ADAPT would conspire to have ADAPT lease whatever properties it could, and Halcon would then pick and choose. ADAPT would get paid on such leases as Halcon chose to accept by way of assignment. For any so-called leases that ADAPT procured which Halcon did not accept by way of assignment, an aggrieved landowner's remedy on his lease with ADAPT would be only against ADAPT and Halcon would insulated. To the extent that ADAPT's "leases" contained the same broad "due diligence" language that was contained  Halcon "leases" which M&P/CX negotiated for its clients  in the Mount Jackson 4 group in Mercer County, Halcon has interposed a second barrier by using ADAPT as an intermediary in the Venango County leases. Jim: I hope you get what I am trying to say. I sincerely hope that Halcon's reliance on the due diligence language in the Mercer County leases is misplaced and that all Mount Jackson landowners ultimately get paid. But even if they do, the poor souls in Venango County who signed with ADAPT are far worse off legally than had they signed directly with Halcon. I think Halcon and ADAPT may be labeled as co-conspirators in their attempts to diminish any legal rights that landowners might have. I know of not one person in Mercer County, Venango County, or Crawford County that has been paid by ADAPT. If there are any ADAPT likely acted as a "flipper" and assigned the leases to Halcon for some additional amount of money. I have searched the e-facts site for any O&G drilling permits issued to ADAPT in the last 3 years in Crawford, Venango, or Mercer County and I have found NONE. Assuredly the O&G companies monitor this site so I personally am inviting SHANE ALLLISON to explicitly state what exactly his company does do. It surely seems not to be what is described on ADAPT's website.

Permalink Reply by Samuel J. Orr on October 16, 2012 at 6:10am

 P-umpjack. Excellent and informative response. You at least seem to agree with my premise that a landowner gains nothing by signing with an intermediary like ADAPT, but is better off dealing directly with an O&G company like Halcon, Shell, or BP. I have quit railing against Halcon or even M&P/CX. I have posed the question to the ALOV group in Ohio whether the BP "leases" contained the same or similar "due diligence" language that was contained in the Halcon "leases" for Mercer County. That language in my judgment converted what might otherwise have been considered a lease into something akin to a mere option to lease, or perhaps a provisional lease as Halcon appears to call the documents in question.  You and I seem to agree on what those Halcon documents may actually turn out to be in their legal effect; though I believe the landowners have a bit better argument than you do. If you are correct, and I currently suspect that you are, the Halcon documents may be the same or essentially the same in regard to the due diligence language as BP "leases" or Shell "leases" or CHK "leases"!? For unknown reasons the question I posed to ALOV about the "due diligence " language in their "leases" with BP received no responses. If nothing else my numerous posts have hopefully educated landowners to read and understand what they are signing. Hopefully they will be aware that mere because a document bears the title of "Lease" does not mean that the document is really a lease. It may be only an option to lease or a provisional lease as Halcon asserts to be the case with the Mercer County documents.

Permalink Reply by Hill Top on October 16, 2012 at 3:37pm

Apparently, the business model these days is to lease first and sort them out later.  (then decide whom to pay)  So that is what we should expect in the future.  The leases across my desk have included plenty of opportunities for the energy companies to back out and/or string us along.  We should not be surprised when they exercise the options that they wrote into their agreements.

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