Received a letter in the mail from Spectra Energy yesterday informing me they were studying the feasability of a 56.5 mile interstate pipeline extention in our area. The map they enclosed appeared to go from the Scio plant to Clairington down in Monroe county. It said a more detailed letter to follow. It is part of their Ohio Pipeline Energy Network (OPEN) project. Wondered if anyone has heard anything

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Josh:

I was contacted today that spectra would be surveying in our area on Monday.  Just a heads up.

Jason

Thanks Jason, they called me Saturday to let me know. I talked to the surveyors a little while ago on our property. They said that this is just to study for a possible path to put it. He didnt know much or even have a map. I asked the guy Saturday if they were working with MarkWest and he said they werent. Although he had heard they were looking to put one in also. They both are following the same path through our property. I guess we all need to be careful that these two dont try to take advantage of us. Such as, MarkWest puts there pipe in with 75'ROW and Spectra buys ROW space off of them and we get the little bit MarkWest was offering for additional pipelines. I havent heard from MarkWest in a few months but their original offer was $15/ft for first and $10/ft for each additional. I can see MarkWest selling Spectra ROW for huge profit while we are stuck with $10. Although I will never sign for that amount to begin with!

Josh:

I was thinking the same thing.  They might end up hooking up and trying to get a multiple pipeline deal for less money.  All of these landmen for Spectra and Markwest are paid landmen.  Just like our friendly landmen that tried to sell us a lease at $50 an acre in spring 2010.  Times have changed and we learned our first lessen the hard way.  Obviously the question we all have is what is the fair amount per foot.  I dont want to discourage development, but I dont also want to agree a low amount and hear later that we could have gotten 3 times the amount.   Like signing a lease for $50 per acre when the going lease amount now is $5000 per acre.  Who can we trust?

A good starting point for pipeline R.O.W. would be $2.oo per inch of pipe per foot.

bessieblues...

Is this estimate based on an actual easement agreement you were involved in?  Was it a large diameter pipeline? Is this an opinion?  If they are planning two 36inch lines....does this price per foot per inch still apply?  That would be $144 per foot.  Regardless I appreciate your advice...your welcome to message me if you dont want to post information.

Jason

Not meaning to be redundant but I repeat - Get a good mineral rights atty, KWGD or one from Columbus, and make sure you know what is going on with the gasline guys.  Don't play guessing games with these companies.  They have been doing this for awhile and know the in's and out's.  You don't so find someone to represent you.  It'll be worth the few bucks spent! 

Sue:

I appreciate you previous post and this post regarding legal representation.  I am fully aware of Bill Williams and the rest of the staff at KWGD.  They are in my opinion the best law firm in Ohio for Oil/Gas negotiations.  However, I am trying to gather some resources without paying a 2K retainer and $375 an hour attorney fees.  I thought that was the point of this website? 

Jason 

Sorry, don't mean to be pushy.  I don't have a dog in this fight but I just see everyone guessing - size of pipe, piggyback piping, price/inch, price/ft (ranging from $15 - $144), etc.  While it is good to gather info, throw out ideas, rumors, etc. and I surely endorse the exchange of info, it's good to have someone who has some hard facts and experience.  I've seen a lot of people get taken to the cleaners in my area.  In order to save a few thousand, they tried to negotiate by themselves and now they wonder what hit them (and one of these folks was a local atty who knew nothing about mineral rights and negotiated himself a bad deal!).  I don't like paying attys but if you had 1,000 ft of pipe @ even $50/ft, I think it would pay to spend $5,000 of it to be sure you are getting the best deal and protecting yourself and your land.   Maybe you could form a group from those who have been approached and split the cost of an atty.  Oops, sorry again, it's not my fight. 

You are correct Sue...but it may take 5K of liquid assesst now for the attorney fees and wait who knows how long for the return of funds with the easement payment.   Sometimes it is hard to justify these sort of things in a tight budget situation.  Contingency agreements dont make sense in these nogotiations either.  Al has a great post on pipeline and addendums...

I agree Jason, thats what this forum is all about sharing ideas and getting a good grasp on things before making a decision. I think we as landowners can be as informed as possible and have an attorney look over the final result to make small changes that we may not think of thereby saving ourselves thousands in legal fees for a lawyer to work every small detail from start to finish. But then again, I probably wouldnt care about cost so much if I owned my minerals on our farm instead of Sue owning them. The only way we surface owners are going to make any money from this boom are in deals such as these and they are not nearly as lucrative as oil and gas leases. Plus we have to deal with the constant threat that they may want to drill a well in the middle of our corn field at anytime.  I doubt any pipeline company is going to pay me 700k to run a pipe across my property, but they take up more space and last a lot longer. So we need to be able to balance money that most of us dont have for a big retainer fee and getting the best deal and protection in a contract.   

Below is a link to a fascinating article in Pennsylvania Outdoor News about a report presented by the agency’s chief deer biologist, Chris Rosenberry.  The article points out an interesting correlation between a buried pipeline and a doe's reluctance to cross the pipeline as determined by a large set of GPS data points from the radio-collared deer.  Any landowner who also hunts or generally enjoys the wildlife therein should also consider the possible implications this information might mean when negotiating a ROW or easement as part of the "damages" associated with such an agreement.  Food for thought.

Why didn’t the doe cross the pipeline?

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