Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Keith Mauck (Site Publisher) on September 3, 2009 at 2:45pm

Do you know of any neighbors that have had contact with potential lesees?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kevin Volk on September 4, 2009 at 7:52am

I had an offer a while back but they pulled out before I had a chance to accept it.

Is Mmmarkkk right? Drilling is banned in NY?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Keith Mauck (Site Publisher) on September 4, 2009 at 8:53am

defacto ban

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by RangeRover on September 11, 2009 at 8:58am

Yeah, so what's that tell ya, Kevin...

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Mmmarkkk on September 3, 2009 at 3:20pm

If you have property in new York State, good luck! Since your ever smart government has sought to place a ban on drilling/frac'ing in the State, no one is progressing with much of anything in NY. Its as if the shale just stops at the border! Gov. Patterson is in way over his head and your state is driven by people who hate oil and gas industry. Don't expect much in the near term until you guys overthrow your state government. The gas will stille be there!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Joel C. Johnson on September 10, 2009 at 4:34pm

We may be able to help.

www.ourdiceros.com

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kevin Volk on September 11, 2009 at 4:21am

If you can help I'd sure appreciate it.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Daniel Farnham on September 11, 2009 at 4:29am

I am a consulting engineer in NEPA. Most of the NGE companies in the area are clients and all are dreading the thought of drilling in NY. General perspective is that NY is going to be difficult to deal with from a compliance aspect. My own observation is that there is too much down state disapproval of the activity. I don't see a rush anytime soon to develop the NY play even after the moratorium is lifted.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Dee on September 17, 2009 at 3:56pm

I would just like to say that if NY does not want activity ( I feel sorry for the NY gas property owners) ....welcome to Ohio. My original lease was with Belden & Blake for Trenton - Blake River; supposedly 26% porosity in the formation. They sold the lease to Fortuna and we resigned with them. I have been told, by a very respected expert on Marcellus; that Brush Creek Twsp - Jefferson County, Ohio is the most promising Marcellus Shale area in Ohio. If no activity occurs by next spring I will be purchasing the geologic information, from him; to shop around for someone that will drill.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by RangeRover on September 11, 2009 at 9:15am

Gee, ya think?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jim Hough on September 14, 2009 at 7:41am

The following news report suggests the previous comments may be wrong when they suggest (a) that now is not a good time to negotiate a lease in NY, and (b) that contacting a gas company is not the best way to begin negotiations.

September 12, 2009


Fortuna Energy agrees to pay $165 million for gas rights; 600 members of coalition to receive $5,500 per acre, plus royalties

By George Basler
gbasler@gannett.com

CHOCONUT, Pa. -- A Horseheads-based company is willing to pay a collective $165 million for the rights to drill for natural gas in about 30,000 acres of the Marcellus Shale.

Fortuna Energy Inc. has closed a deal with The Friendsville Group, a coalition of about 600 property owners, to lease all of the group's acreage in Susquehanna and Bradford counties in Pennsylvania, as well as its land in Broome County, officials with the coalition said Saturday.

Under the agreement, Fortuna Energy will pay all of the property owners in the coalition $5,500 an acre for a five-year lease on their property, with a company option to extend the lease for another three years. The company will also pay 20 percent royalties for producing wells.

The offer is "one-size-fits-all" for everyone in the coalition, said Pat Flaherty who helped negotiate the deal. But, he emphasized, each landowner will make an individual decision on whether to accept or forego the lease for their land.

Landowners at Saturday's session, which filled Neumann Hall in Choconut, were asked to sign letters of intent with Fortuna, binding them to not talk with another company for two weeks. Fortuna officials will be back at Neumann Hall on Sept. 26 and 27 to sign lease agreements with landowners who schedule appointments.

The deal seems to be a good one, several landowners said.

"I think everyone in there is happy with the offer, and definitely with the lease," said Joe Fizzano, who owns property in Little Meadows, Pa.

"It's by far the best offer we've seen," added Larry Barrack, who owns property in New Milford, Pa.

Hess Corp., by contrast, has agreed to pay $3,500 an acre for drilling rights in Kirkwood to open 11,400 acres to drilling.

Under the agreement, Pennsylvania landowners will receive the $5,500 per acre within 40 to 90 days of signing the lease agreement, Fortuna officials said.

The deal will be structured differently for coalition landowners in New York, who are clustered in the towns of Binghamton and Vestal. That's because New York currently has a moratorium on drilling, Flaherty said. New York landowners will receive $500 per acre when the lease is signed, and the other $5,000 per acre when the moratorium is lifted. The company will not be able to do any work on their land until New York begins issuing permits to drill.

Fortuna began negotiating the lease deal after being approached by the coalition, said Mark Scheuerman, general counsel and manager of government and media relations with the company.

The agreement is a good match between what the coalition wants, and Fortuna's plans for exploration and development, he said.

The company is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Calgary, Alberta-based Talisman Energy Inc., one of North America's largest independent producers of natural gas, the company's brochure says. Fortuna currently maintains more than 22,000 oil and gas leases and pays monthly royalties on producing wells to more than 2,200 landowners in the Twin Tiers, according to a company brochure.

The agreement is "a tremendous offer," said C. Warren Trainor, a Philadelphia attorney who represented the coalition. The deal is good not only because of the payments, but also because of the protections offered to property owners by the company, he said.

Under the agreement, for example, any development plan must be presented to a landowner before drilling, the company has no rights to other minerals on a property and no well can be closer than 750 feet to a building.

The coalition "found you a company that's willing to work with you," Trainor said.

• ▶ Reply