For Those Living in Gas Well Drilling Areas

Top 10 Things Not To Do When Negotiating Oil and Gas Leases


Oil & Gas Leasing: Top 10 Things To Do

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We will meet in the golden city, called the New Jerusalem,
All our pain and all our tears will be no more.....

I've seen the damage done to land from the drilling process and prefer not to look at it everyday for the rest of my life.


Sorry, need a few more sentences. LOL

At one time I was all for it here, but having seen first hand what's happened to the land of some of my neighbors, I decided that I'd rather keep my land the way it is. So I haven't signed a lease, and don't intend to.

Foolish ? In NY, under compulsory integration, I am entitled to 12.5 % royalties if they drill on a neighbors land and I am within that unit. And I don't have total strangers on my land all hours of the day.

I'm not rich, but I'm also not dazzled by dollar signs as many in my area have been Some of them got taken by signing the lease that was put in front of them, despite warnings by our neighbor who is the president of the county Farm Bureau.

Why not take 25% royalty, AND get a NSO (no surface occupancy) addendum?

In case anyone doesn't know what the heck I'm talking about (think I've mentioned it about six thousand times ), a no surface occupancy addendum states that there will be No drilling pad, No pipeline, No road, No nothing associated with oil and gas drilling or development in or on your property.

If you did sign a lease, you could cover any incidental damage to your property (water rights protections, dust mitigation, etc.)

Exploration companies in NY must simply love this compulsory integration law... saves them a heckuva lot pain and aggravation, and they can get an extra 12.5% royalty for themselves. And, save a small fortune on bonus payments.

Please tell me this isn't a common thing for New Yorkers to do.... I always thought Yankees were smart. Don't sign, give up 50% of what you could make, and have no legal recourse for off site damages?

Reminds me of a tale told by a not very smart politician, that lost because of this statement (to Ann Richards, aka Ma Richards).... "If your going to get raped, you might as well lay back and try to enjoy it." {I didn't vote for him}

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Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming

I actually looked over a No Surface Lease, and still have a copy of the contract here. If they were offering 25% on a no surface, I probably would at least consider it further. However, the most I have been offered is 200 an acre ( x 25 acres ) and 18 % royalties. Anyone who has come here has yet to make me an offer I would consider when I can get 12.5 % and not have to sign anything. As an aside, any mention of a pipeline would be omitted in the lease and a seperate agreement reached.

I'm not the only one thinking this way, and eventually they will be serious about playing ball once NY comes to a decision about further drilling. So far, they haven't done or said much to impress me. Only one guy has been here who hasn't given me a skeevy feeling, and it aint the guy I grew up with that is now a landman.

I bought the land with a purpose in mind, and if I never see a cent from natural gas, I still have the land. That's what's most important to me.

He's not fully clear on the NY Laws regarding forced pooling. NY has some of the best terms for the unwilling landowner. NOT right IMHO. But it is what it is. In NY it can be done basically two ways.

One is they must pay you the max % rate of any landowner in the pool. With 12.5% being the state min. it could happen. But not likely.

The second method is cost/plus then 100% proceeds. So the gas company drills and it costs 1 million. You are 50% of the land in the production unit. So the company gets to make 3 times the cost of developing your resource or 1.5 million. Then you get the remainder of your share in the production unit. So you would get 100% of the production from your land with no deductions after the cost/plus is paid.

I have a gaswell. It was here when I purchased the farm, it is older. There is a pond close to the well. When I first bought the farm, 11 years ago, I tested it and recently. I have tested my well water and that pond water. I have never found anything unusual in it. I tested it using our own equipment in the lab, hplc. My gaswell is less than 200 feet from a regulated wetlands. the epa is consistently testing the water in the wetlands.

In the beginning of my ownership. the well was old. I didn't receive but a 100$ a month. They redid the plumbing and flushed it. I receive nice big checks 20% and I get 200,000 cf of free gas I heat with. I tested the water surrounding it right after the upgrade and found no contaminates. They collect the salts and guess what... the county buys the salts and sprays the roads with it in winter. that is how dangerous it is...
As for people all over your property, they come once a weeks and monitor it. it is a very small unit possibly uses about 5 x 20 feet about 6 foot high, if that.

You can go for horse rides in the woods where there are no wells drilled and there is gas right on the surface naturally. There is a spot up here where you can hike, we call it ghost hike. it is a waterfall that has a crack of gas leaking from behind it, naturally, and its lit. It stays lit.

Frankly, I have 2 thoughts, one being... people are sue happy in this country.

my second thought is if you live in a state that values $$ and has lots of it, more illegal procedures get through the cracks. bezene has been takin out of "bulk" use for many years along with most of the chemicals listed on those documents. If they are still being used, someones getting payed off by someone rich enough to do so. We have no one that rich here in NY.

NY has strict rules for the gaswell drillers. and when my well is dead they legally have $$ set aside to fill the casing with cement from top to bottom.

Well Colorado is one messed up state. Years and years ago mineral rights and water rights have been sold off most properties. In my area one family owns the loin share of the mineral rights and they will not sell them back to you. So if you want to buy farm property around here you have the land, and they get all the money from whatever the oil company is willing to pay them. They are allowed to drill 300 feet from your house. They drill 24/7 for about a week, make a ton of noise, you are not compensated in anyway unless you make a fuss which my one neighbor is very good at doing. I tell him with all his nonsense and making them put in a gravel road, fence 1/2 his property and etc I bet my gas prices will have gone up.

Around me without needing binoculars I see 7 gas/oil well and driving down the driveway I see 3 more. It is ugly, I doubt they are pollution free and make some pockets fat. Thankfully so far they have avoided my property, not sure if it is due to my high water table or what.

Overseas my family has water heater that sits on the roof and is solar powered. Cost 1,000 buy and install and is enviro friendly. They recycle more than we do, have many solar powered cheaper options than we do and etc. Here in this country solar is too high priced probably to discourage us from using it. I wanted my house to be solar but they denied us and said since no one around us has it we had to have electricty installed or they would notr give us the final home loan.
Wind energy is around us but I would like to see more of that as well. Some in this country resist it since far too many have oil interest here as well as overseas. I would much rather have 5 windmills on my property than one oil well. I would love for my car to run on hydrogen or something else than gas. Alternative energy would make the oil people here and overseas, poor...boo hoo.


Oh and we had a few familes on the other side of the highway from me that could set their water on fire due to gas leaks and a few familes whose properties were so fouled up they had to be condemmed and leave them. So I doubt all the drilling is "safe" and pollution free and worth what they pay you in the end.

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