Republican Party fusillade catches Western PA landowners by surprise - Shock and Awe!!

The entirety of the Republican Party has opened a full scale attack on PA landowners and royalty owners, but especially on those in Western PA.  This attack is called SB 259.  It will cost Pennsylvanians millions of dollars, money which will go straight into gas company coffers.  Here is a newspaper article explaining what has happened:

PA landowners come under sharp, unexpected attack!

SB 259 sits today on Governor Corbett's desk awaiting signature.  Contact him here:

Contact Corbett here - Tell him to veto SB 259!

If enough of us take action right now, this impending robbery can still be thwarted!!  But time is very, very short.  You must act now.  Tell Corbett to veto SB 259.

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Permalink Reply by Frank Walker on July 7, 2013 at 7:11am

The ongoing effort by gas companies to diminish the importance of this legislation is completely disingenuous.  They say, over and over, that only a "small number" of landowners is impacted.  That is self-evident hogwash.  If the number is so small, why make such a concerted and clandestine effort to screw us!!

In reality, a significant number of us are in the line of fire.  Many impacted landowners are totally unaware today of their jeopardy.  In addition, legislation of this nature is a stalking horse for more to come!!  Any landowners thinking this has no personal impact had better reconsider.  Next time the bullet could easily have your name on it!

This sort of thing needs to be stopped right now.  A line needs to be drawn and we need en masse to shout "NO WAY".  Anyone too lethargic to contact Corbett had better be ready to shut up when the next gas company legislative salvo hits them right in their pocketbook!

Permalink Reply by Rick on July 7, 2013 at 8:48am

You know this really pee's me off because they have already stretched the truth by applying vertical well language and regulations to horizontal well drillind saying they "hold by production" for eternity. That is until they find its not so cut and dried... now they say the old law isnt sufficient for horizontal wells. So if they hold by production and got thousands of acres basically for nothin... isnt that good enough? they want EVERY SQUARE INCH? you know this is bullcrap... just because i didnt write in my lease that I dont want them to tear my house down and drill through the basement, am i at risk for some future legislation written by some bought and paid for polital hack saying they can? There is NO way ANYONE can for see what will be happening technologically 30, 40, 50, or even just 5years from now.... I cant put something in my lease when there isnt even a word for it yet, can i?

I agree we need to take a stand and challenge!

I also wonder, seriously, has anyone challenged their held by production status on technology advances and the difference in operations. I know they have challenged on definition of "production".

For example, when they approached me in 98 to drill a vertical well, they gave me a document... well a printed peiec of paper from their office stating what will happen when they drill my well... almost NONE of those procedures would be used today... and they said my property would be returned back to normal within 90 days, i believe If they told me about the type of operation that horizontal drilling entails, and the disruption, degradation and loss of use of my property, i probably wouldnt have signed it... couldnt they look in their crystal ball and tell me that in 15 years they would be back and suck up 5 to 10 acres of my property and creat a nusiance for years?They tell us, and even people on here tell us we should have had more due diligence. In 98 there WERE no competent gas attorneys in pa.. and none in the world that would have coined the word or forseen "horizontal drilling"They expect us mineral owners to have crystal balls.. where are their balls? oh yea.. we know...never mind. Has anyone challenged HBP on something like this? I think its time to challenge the whole "held by production" rule being taken from vertical techniques and applying them to horizontal techniques....

And you know for all you here that think we are crying about spilled milk... think again... real hard, because you may think you have a wonderful lease and you have a great lawyer, and he covered every possible scenario and you sleep well at night. But there will come that day when a new word or technique appears that your attorney had no idea would be invented and you too will be screwed.

Sorry for the long rant... not happy here, even though this new law probably wouldnt apply to me..

Permalink Reply by Mark McGrail on July 7, 2013 at 9:04am

Rick,

Even if this legislation doesn't apply to you the next one might.

Everyone should be contacting the Governor and demanding that he veto the bill.

Permalink Reply by LW on July 7, 2013 at 10:29am

Exactly!   Contact Corbett!  Please!

Permalink Reply by Rick on July 7, 2013 at 10:43am

I'm callin his sorry ass tomorrow..717-787-2500

Something else to chew on. Its two years old, but still relevant

http://www.followthemoney.org/press/ReportView.phtml?r=455

Permalink Reply by LW on July 7, 2013 at 12:20pm
Permalink Reply by Rick on July 7, 2013 at 3:16pm

Thats just great LW... looks like we are all gonna get screwed and for a long time... thats why when people say "the government should stay out of the O&G companies business and they will do the right thing" it makes my blood boil... industry will ALWAYS do what is best for them, and to hell with everyone else... i wonder how powerful that group National Association of Royalty owners is, and if they would really have influence to help protect us mineral owners... do they have lobbiests? But then again, look at the money that is coming in to these campaigns from the corporate side... how can we compete? Looks hopeless to me...only thing i can suggest is never lease to these companies that are doing dirty business... chesasneak, stratoil, and now eqt... lease to better players. I wonder also if a lease can be written to limit who it can be sold to.. ie, not resold to chesasneak or stratoil or eqt.. proably doesnt matter...

Permalink Reply by Nancy Mosley on July 7, 2013 at 3:48pm

I wonder also if a lease can be written to limit who it can be sold to.. ie, not resold to chesasneak or stratoil or eqt..

I think this is possible. I have seen something about "assignment can be to Company X but no further" and have read about clauses that lessor must approve assignment. However, getting that language in a lease is easier said than done.

Permalink Reply by Bill Bergseid on July 8, 2013 at 5:22am

You guys in the Marcellus/Utica play get your knickers all twisted in a knot over this.  Our family owns minerals in Oklahoma and North Dakota where we have similar laws and they work pretty well.  They allow mineral owners to develop their minerals in the most expedient fashion.  Perhaps you have seen pictures in East Texas when there were no spacing or pooling laws---you could also jump from one derrick to the next, when one well was sufficient to drain an area covered with numerous wells.  The force pooling law helps keep the number of wells to an economic limit.  An owner who is force pooled can participate in the well or can elect to receive a royalty instead.  In North Dakota the royalty is based on the average royalty in all the leases in the pooled area--fair enough.  In Oklahoma an unleased mineral owner being force pooled has an election--usually he can participate in the well for his pro rata share, get a bonus payment and keep a royalty, get a bigger bonus and keep a smaller royalty, or a 1/4 royalty and no bonus.

The article references measures in other states to protect the mineral owner.  Those protections are for unleased mineral owners whose mineral interest is being force pooled.  In the case cited, the PA owner had already leased.

So your beef is one behalf of a mineral owner who leased his/her minerals reserving a 1/8 royalty and has had production on his lease until the market price for leases has changed and is somehow entitled to a better deal.  If this mineral owner bought his farm from an original owner who retained no minerals, is the original owner entitled to renegotiate his deal to sell the farm?  After all, it's not fair that he sold the farm without giving any value to the minerals, and now those minerals are worth as much as his farm.  Neither the buyer nor the seller of the farm anticipated this.  Is this fair?  Well both parties thought so at the time and we all recognize that they don't get a second chance.

Permalink Reply by Rick on July 8, 2013 at 5:28am

Bill, what you are talking about has nothing to do with this issue.

Permalink Reply by Frank Walker on July 8, 2013 at 7:03am

It's very important to remember the following:

Anyone can post here without restriction and without revealing true intent or agenda.  If industry people come on here and post (what is from landowners' standpoint) nonsense, some landowners will become confused or simply disgusted and/or turned off.  And that's the reason they do it.  A confused, annoyed, landowner does not contact Governor Corbett.  And the gas companies make a lot more money.

It's all about the money.  And the gas companies are ruthless and cunning in these matters.  Divide and conquer is their modus operandi.  That's true right here . . . and elsewhere, too.  If they can confuse and divide us, they win!!  

Thanks for contacting Governor Corbett.  I contacted him, too.  If others cannot be bothered, we are screwed.  The gas companies have made political contributions to the tune of millions of dollars.  The only chance we have to overcome that lies in our numbers.  If we all speak out we will win.  If too many of us remain silent, the gas companies will win.  It's as simple as that.

Permalink Reply by wyalusing jim on August 6, 2013 at 9:29am

"The only chance we have to overcome that lies in our numbers.  If we all speak out we will win."

you do realize that there aren't really that many of us don't you?

last I read, there were about 150,000 mineral owners in the Marcellus. i'm sure that less than half of them vote, and even fewer care.

i'm quite sure that you'll never hear a candidate running for governor saying, "and i'm gonna do all that I can to make sure that all them Marcellus millionaires don't get cheated out of any of their royalty money!", nah, not gonna happen.

wj

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