Washington County, OH

I strongly urge anyone to have a lawyer look over their lease before signing and more importantly to stick together with your neighbors or landowner group (no matter who your with) so you can ALL get the best lease for yourself

Here is their website. They have made three succesful lease agreements so far. you can read about the agreements here:

http://www.seohiolandowners.org/Press.aspx

They are close to a  deal for their southern Noble Co. members and they are negotiating also for the washington Co. members also. I believe that is all that remains in their membership, I might be wrong on that but i believe that would be all.

Steve, one of the things I like about SEOLA is that just because you sign up with them doesn't mean you have to agree to anything or pay them anything...unless you sign the lease they have negotiated or you sign with the same company that offers the lease. You can choose to go independant at any time I believe. THis is part of the reason I also really like SEOLA. Here's from their "Process" page:

[1] A landowner is not required to sign the lease. If the landowner decides not to sign, he or she may negotiate his or her own lease, but will be obligated to pay the attorneys’ and engineering fees if he or she decides to sign a lease with the same company as the Association. This protection is built into the landowner agreement to make sure oil and gas companies do not try to divide the association, and to protect the majority of landowners in the association.

The fact that Reed said they could "get you out of it" sounds like shady double talk.

John, you should visit the SEOLA site. They are not flippers, it's a land owners group represented by several attorneys as well as Dr. Robert Chase of Marietta college. If, and only if, they successfully secure an agreement that you also agree to, their % is 4.5 (percentage base means they have a vested interest in getting as high a price as possible) I believe which I feel is very fair with the professional services they are providing. They have very strong land owner protections and have negotiated several great deals already in other counties.

I believe that so far, no landowner has had to pay the 4 1/2 percent. They have negotiated it so that the O&G companies pay it for the landowner!!

Dee, You're right, If you don't like the lease they negotiate for you, you don't have to sign and you're also released from their landowner agreement and owe them nothing, unless you sign with the same O&G Co. that they brought you!

@Steve Wagner,

"... no landowner has had to pay the 4 1/2 percent. They have negotiated it so that the O&G companies pay it for the landowner!! ..."

 And so you get a Signing Bonus that is 4.5% lower than the landowner who does pay the negotiator directly.  You gained nothing by not paying the negotiator directly. I get $4,200/acre but I pay the negotiator $200/acre, so I net $4,000/acre. You get $4,000/acre and the driller pays the $200/acre to the negotiator. What is the difference? Either way YOU did pay the negotiators fee out of your Signing Bonus. So, the 4.5% does matter.

It's impossible to know whether that's true or not. It might just as well have been a case that the O&G Co. said we're paying no more than 4K per acre, but the legal team was able to push the final amount up by having them agree to pay the legal fees. There also may be tax benefits for the landowner should they be on record as having received 4k rather than 4.2K

@ Dee_A,

 In both scenarios the Driller paid $4,200 per acre.

 Case #1- $4,000/acre to landower & $200/acre to Negotiator

 Case #2 - $4,200/acre to landower

 In both cases the cost to the Driller $4,200/acre.

 Where is the benefit to anybody?

 If the 4.5% does not come out of your signing bonus then you are suggesting that if paid directly the money/cost was a "special gift" by the Driller directly to your negotiator? Really?

 Please tell me the the tax advantage when you get a 1099 from the Driller for the $200/acre that the Driller paid to YOUR negotiator on your behalf. If you do not get a 1099 for the $200/acre then the IRS may have problems with you and your negotiator since the negotiator worked for you but the negotiator is paid by the opposing party (the driller).  If you do not get a 1099 for the $200/acre then is that "hidden" income to you then considered Tax Evasion?

You really like to seek out things just to debate don't you?  

What I said stands. There are only very slight differences. In one case you are on the record of having received 4.2k, then you deduct what you paid the attorneys on your taxes. On the other case, you are on record as having received only the 4k and don't have to deduct anything.

In any case, this is just really goofy to argue about.

Utica,

 Like you said, both are paid for by the driller. I'm a landowner, therefore I believe in case #1 I pay taxes on the income that I received which would be the $4000/acre.  I would rather pay the 35% to 42% taxes on case #1 than #2!! The fees to the Negotiator's(Lawyers) being paid for their services would be taxed as income to the Lawyers. The driller would send the 1099 to the Lawyers and they are responsible for the taxes on their income.  I was told that the O&G were ok with this(which they agreed to it) because they can keep the numbers down. It's better for them to announce $4000/acre and pay the fees than to announce $4200/acre. The down fall for the landowner might be (I'm not an accountant) is using the fees as a deduction on my taxes. I'm not sure as I have talked a little to my accountant but did not cover this. All I know is that SEOLA's team of Lawyers are WAY more knowledgable at Negotiating with the O&G than I am.

Dee A said it WAY better than I just did with my long commentary.

It's goofy until you realize that group that has 70,000 acres just paid the negotiator $14 Million from their signing bonuses.

Utica...ah....so you are one of those folks that are trying to keep landowners from joining groups or hiring attorneys?

Steve, I was thinking the same thing about your post, only backwards. LOL

As to 14 million, that figure means nothing until it's in context. If they did all the leg work, got the owners a high figure and great land protections, dealt with all the stress and paperwork and negotiating, etc., and then got 14 million for securing the landowners maybe 350 million, that is just fabulous!

A landowner group is your best bet. Talk to neighbors and see if they are signed up. Southeast Ohio landowners Assn. is who I'm with. They are negotiating with 4 O&G companies now and are close to a deal.

Five siesmic trucks at the fairgrounds tonight.  A geophysical company from Plano, Texas.

James, Good luck. I wish I was savvy enough to know all the ins and outs of the leases. Thats one reason I went with a group. They do this all the time and know it inside and out. Plus, I don't have the time. A bunch of us went together and we have over 1200 contiguous acres and figured we would have better bargaining power. PDC is leasing in the area around Beverly, Waterford and Lowell along with Reed energy.

Did anyone else see the 3500 offer I added the link to in the Discussion forum above? Wish that guy had added a bit more info.

http://gomarcellusshale.com/group/washington-county-oh/forum/topics...

I put no faith in any of these websites which tell you lease rumors. I think it is just people putting false statements and never having to answer for them.

I don't believe rumors either, which is why I posted this question here, want to see if others know anything about it or might have a link, etc.  

Oh...I see, it's so folks can add info if they get an offer? Hard to tell how accurate that all is but thanks for providing that link Rick. :-)

it will probably be business days, especially if the courthouse is busy.

A.S., from a couple of sources, including the SEOLA offices, it does seem offers are getting very close, I have the feeling we'll see something within 3 weeks. :-)

Thanks for the update Dee, do you know if this is just for the nothern townships of Washington Co., or all of thier Washington County townships?  Just wondering since it seems like most of the leasing right now is happening in the northern part of Washington County.

Does anyone know about the northeast portion of Wash. Co.?  Is SEOLA working on any deals for its members in all of the county or are they doing this by townships? 

Hi Angela, the area they are working on right this minute is all of Washington Co., except maybe the areas south and south east of Waterford. So yes, from what I understand, the north east areas are included in their current negotiations. They just closed another deal that I got word of today via email to their members, this is for 2 townships south of Caldwell in Noble Co.

Hi Rose, see my reply to Angela. From what they said several weeks ago, they are including all those Washington Co., areas/townships. However, I'm guessing it's possible they could be split up, but I don't think so. I believe they are hoping/planning to do it for all areas I mentioned.

I expect the news I got via email today will be posted to their site by EOD. http://seohiolandowners.org/Press.aspx 

Thanks for the update again Dee!  Just for clarification...is it areas southwest of Waterford, or southeast of Waterford (or more specifically Marietta/Newport Townships)  ..fingers crossed..  :)

I'm sorry, I mean south west of Waterford. So, I believe the Marietta area is included.

Rose, are you one of the SEOLA members?

I have land signed up with SEOLA on the line between Fearing and Lawrence Townships.  The parcel to my South (about 150 acres) signed on with PDC last November (should have waited and joined a land group) and two parcels to the north also signed with PDC about the same time.  I obviously didn't sign and joined SEOLA.  So I know they already have some land in the area - hopefully working with SEOLA to augment their acres. 

Hi Dee, Thanks for the info.  No I'm not personally a member but my family is.  I just relay the info. I read   :)

Rose, you might have your family call SEOLA for some updates. They are nice about answering questions but I haven't asked about the areas lately so my info might be outdated. If you hear anything different can you share with us? :-)

Thanks Dee, I'll pass that along  :)

Cavalry, thanks for adding that info. :-)

If you have wondered what's up with the old Weavertown site in New Matamoras.....

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=219127&p=irol-newsA...=