Updated November 8, 2011

This webpage is a little over a year old. During this time frame oil and gas leasing
offers have increased significantly.

As of November 8, 2011 the signing bonus has increased to $5350-$5800 with the royalty percentage at 20 % gross. Leases are being signed by several companies. The best lease terms are being realized by the landowner groups that offer their acreage through a competitive bidding process. I personally believe the money offers will continue to increase with time. The highest offers occur when landowners pool their land into contiguous units.

Presumably, all are aware that Chesapeake recently leveraged 25% of their leaseholds in

Eastern Ohio for $15,000 per acre by forming a JV with an undisclosed oil major.

Views: 33346

Replies to This Discussion

Peter,

I can relate to the problem of not being close to Harrison County property as I live in Iowa.

Perhaps Nathan identified the reason for our apparent disagreement on the Ohio drilling regulations. I spent a lot of time talking to ODNR personnel asking questions. The result of the discussion led to consideration of establishing a drilling unit with my property being the base property. When I concluded my conversation with the ODNR representatives, I asked if there was a statutory reference and they referred me to SB 165. That is a long piece of legislation. I fell asleep after about the fourth page and have not completed reading the bill yet. Thanks Peter and Nathan for correcting the record.

Sorry, I cannot help you with the identification of Stock Township landowners. Your inquiry results from an article I imported from the Ohio landowners portion of this website. That thread was started before the Harrison County group was established. The gentleman who made the comment about Stock Township was Billy Bob Meeker, a member of the Ohio landowners group. Please refer your question to Mr. Meeker.
Peter,
I have 102 acres very close to Deersville with rights and am looking to possibly pool. It is currently under lease but only until February. I also have some neighbors with large tracts and will be contacting them soon to learn of their rights and interest in doing the same.
Mark,
Thanks for your input. I have recently been in contact with the Wellington Resource Group who are represented locally by Sheri Ramsburg. The lease offers $1300/acre (less 10% for the land agent) for a 5-year primary term along with a 15% royalty before production costs.
After reviewing their lease terms the one thing that most bothered me was their pooling language. It gives the lessee the right to pool unlimited acreage whether contiguous or not. This would allow the lessee to create a giant drilling unit that could contain thousands of acres then drill a single well that would thereafter hold all the land under the production clause. The royalties from this well would be diluted for each landowner due to its great size.
To their credit the lessee has inserted an addendum which contains, among other features favorable to landowners, a clause called a "Pugh Clause". This releases land not contained within a pooled unit which is desirable for the landowner. However, it does not address the concern that with no limits on size the drilling unit would most likely contain all the leased property of multiple owners and thereby hold it indefinately under the production clause.
I have contacted the office of Wellington regarding this concern and they appear to be willing to address this issue and possibly others that we as landowners may be concerned about. I have engaged an O&G attorney to review the lease and advise me of terms that may need adjustment.
I think it may be wise to negotiate as a group to obtain most favorable terms and appreciate your communication with area landowners. Let's keep up the dialog and hopefully arrive at terms that will protect our lands and allow reasonable returns for landowners and producers.
Peter,

Please give me a call either Thursday or Friday evening sometime after 8 PM. My phone number is 563-355-4219.

Al
Peter,
Thanks for the response. I agree negotiations should be easier as a group. Have landowners been accepting the lease offer you describe under the current terms? Is there a typical "production cost"?.........or some sort of range? If not, then I would think it would be better to negotiate a percentage of gross. Actually, I have way too many questions. Maybe someday we could talk. I'm not in much of a rush as I have 5 months left on my current lease.
Peter, we also have about 130 acres close to Deersville, ( just off of Moravian Trail on Garner Road, close to the Gun Club) and we have had several low ball offers from Kenyen Energy. If possible could you please pass along the contact info for Sheri Ramsburg, and also the name and contact info for the O&G attorney. This would be greatly appreciated as i am struggling to find one who only wants to charge big houry rates, with little or no advice.
We live on the property full time and have done many hours of research at the court house and now just need some good advice. We have a existing (30+ year old) oil and gas lease with Red Hill, that is very vague on depths, or shale formations. There is one well close to us but only to the Clinton formation. Thanks in advance for any and all info or guidance. I can also be reached on my cell anytime @ 330-987-1252 Rod
Rod, I think the first thing to do is find the status of your existing lease. It may be held in force by production in which case you should be getting royalties if you purchased the land and mineral rights or if the lessee is paying delay rentals.
You can find the status of any well in Ohio by going to this website http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/OHRbdmsOnline/WebReportAccordion.aspx
On the menu select reports, then completions and it will take you to the search page where you can enter county, township and section number, then click search to see all the wells in your section. You will see the data for each well including its depth, acreage, formations, and even annual production of O&G for each year.
This information may help you determine the status of your lease and those surrounding you.
Very often leases are not formally terminated and recorded so if yours has not been maintained by production or delay rental you may have to take action to get it released. I'm not sure how this is done maybe someone at the courthouse could tell you.
The phone for Cheri Ramsburg is 330-877-2804. She is working for a company in Greensburg PA, Wellington Resouce Group, that I believe is an independent leasing agency with no financial affiliation with a producing company. I expect that any lease signed with Wellington, who I expect has very limited financial resouces, would not be fully funded as to the front end primary lease payment until it had been assigned to a producer with adequate financial backing. The terms of the Wellington lease that was presented to me gives them 120 days to accomplish this assignment and payment. During this 120 days your lease is in force but could be terminated by the lessee if they cannot find a buyer. Please understand I have no interest in any lessee's business, I'm just another Harrison County landowner like yourself trying to figure out what's best for me and hopefully keep informed about what's going on around me.
do you still have acreage available in Harrison?

We have not signed yet and have approximately 160 acres

 

Be patient! I have land available to lease and recently asked for a 25% gross royal using my lease. There are two companies evaluating my offer

Any word on the BUELL well yet????
Permalink Reply by Billy Bob Meeker 2 hours ago
In Harrison County, Stock Township, there is a group of landowners that have banded together to form a single block of land for the purpose of negotiation (possibly up to 5,000 acres ... not necessarily contiguous property). Reportedly, they have received an offer of $1300/ac and 15% royalty with fairly landowner-friendly terms in the contract. I believe they are working through an attorney that is negotiating for them.

Suggest that you do some investigation as to how this group is set up and see if you can get into a similar group to achieve more clout.



► Reply to This

RSS

© 2024   Created by Keith Mauck (Site Publisher).   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service