Opinions on geophysical seismic survey

The issue isn't the land useage. The issue is the information gathered. See if they will give you a copy of the findings from your land. They wont.

Here in my area they just avoided the properties where the people said no because they don't want to test in court if looking at your minerals is the same as looking in your house.


Oh, they have to "leave" the area. In a hurry. Well tell them when they come back to do the survey they will have time again to talk.
By the way 2 dollars a foot isn't nothing. Especially when they want to dig a hole. The hole should be worth something. Then the per foot.


For myself tho... No lease. No look. Period.

I just received a letter asking for a permit to do seismic surveys on my property and they're offering $10 per acre. I only own surface rights. I'm wondering if anyone else is getting these letters in my area. I've not been able to get in touch with any neighbors yet.

I've done some internet research and haven't seen any offer amounts that are newer than 2 years old. Those two year old offers are roughly $5 per acre so I wonder if they've upped their anny or there's a reason for them to be offering so much up front.

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Francismilker

"The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" James 5:16

My concern would be that they carefully remove the top soil and keep the sub soil separated from it. And if there are large rocks they will bury them deep. Then they put back the subsoil and topsoil carefully. Have this in writing and be there to supervise it ... do not trust them.

My neighbor's farm is under an old lease .... the PIGS from the gas company dig a ditch , lay a line, then throw the nice fine stone free topsoil over the line and then fill the ditch with the subsoil along with big stones buried only a few inches below the surface. Then when you chissle or moldboard you bring them up !!!!!!

In your situation they are digging a ditch and those construction workers see it all as just "dirt" of differing colors ... they will mix it when they dig it and mix it more when they back fill.

Im not sure I have a clear picture here.
Do the want to drop a line on the ground and dig a small hole for a sencer or do they want to dig a trench and put in a pipeline?

The answer is no
Thats what I told them, they are 3rd party people putting together surry's to sell to the marcellus shale people I'm in W. PA and we have the same people going around.
They wanted to drill holes run cables and drop charges so they could read the shock back. I told them you pay me for anything your doing on my land, if I catch you on it without contract, I'll take your equipment.
The good news is if they are doing seismic in your area the offers will be coming along soon. Dont go it alone, I told people out our way in 03 dont sign for $25-50 an acre, what do I know just a dumb hillbilly. We formed a land owners group, now there are many of them, but the more land acre you have in a group, the more leverage you have.
Also if you do anything you want your royalty % to be in pre production.

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Rock
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They are after us, too. We have a very old, but active, lease on our land. Old enough that there is some dispute over if it covers the shale rights. Anyway Seitel wants to drill down 30 feet and set off charges. They asked us to locate any water wells on the map they gave us. The offer was just under $500 for 87 acres. $500 is really nothing, but the disruption isn't much, either.

I can't tell if the gas company is paying the survey company to do this work, or if they want to gather data hoping to sell it to a gas company. If drilling a few holes gets the gas company to start producing and paying royalties sooner, I am all for it.

I dunno.

I recently had one done on my place. They paid me a fee per acre for trespass rights. When they showed up with equipment they stopped and talked to me. Shoed me the map of what they wanted to do. We walked the map and I said what they can do. I limited them to the map. IOW they could not go just anywhere. I got a great deal! They mowed 2 property line up to 20 ft wide. I am talking 30 ft trees. All that was left was splinters. I supervised and got a much better job than my neighbors. I was informed by the previous owner they found nothing 20 years ago.

My neighbor refused to take their money and they trespassed as their right and did no mowing. Just laid their lines. Ah he did all kinds of kicking and screaming. That is all it amounted to BTW.

I would tell them no digging. You own the surface rights. The mineral rights owner does not and must compensate you for any land use.

If it's an old well, odds are the lease covers everything all the way to the center of the earth. I've seen very few leases older than ten years, with any kind of vertical Pugh clause... If you've got a lease a few years old, and you had an oil/gas attorney to draft it, you 'could' have gotten the depth clauses.

Normally a seismic company surveys an area, and leases out their data to whoever can pay.

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

The companies are allowed by law if they have the ogm rights in PA. They have every right to drive right through your land, maybe even build a road, and do what they need to do for OGM research and drilling. As long as they stay on the access road, then they are not in violation of the law.

Are you sure that disruption isn't "much"??? I mean, putting charges into the ground - there is only so much control they will have over what happens when the charges detonate. What if they screw up your water, your well? Seriously, think this through. Just my .02

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Edmund Burke once said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

I believe the law here in OK is $10 min per acre. What you actually get is up to negotiation. I just sign my letter/contract with them not understanding this. I still got a good deal. If there is a next time I will be much more prepared. With my current level of understanding at the time I am a happy camper. The work they did would have take me a month and cost much more than the fee they paid me to do by hand or cost me much more than I would be willing to pay to have done.

That sounds like fracking and could damage your house in the thouands. Say no!!!!!

No they do not have trespass rights to do as they please.

I don't know about PA, but in TX, the mineral owner has senior rights over the surface owner. As far as oil exploration (drilling, roads, pipelines and every other aspect of the process) they can do whatever they please. By law, they're not required to offer the surface owner anything. They usually do, up to a point, simply for good public relations.

But since oil companies, as a rule, do not do their own seismic surveys, the senior mineral rights clauses don't apply, and they (the seismic company) must negotiate for access.

Even if you don't give access, in hopes that drilling won't occur, your 'SOL'. If they survey the tracts around yours, they'll know what you 'have' under yours. If it were a 'gold mine' they were surveying, it might be the case... but oil/gas occurs in large continuous formations... in a ten square mile area, an oil producing formation might be 1000' on one corner, 950' on another, 900' on another and 850' on the last corner... and they might have hundreds of seismic shots inside the square... from this, they can make a 3-D map of the entire area, including under yours.

On 'fracking', I know of no one that's ever 'felt it'. Seismics, sure... IF I were concerned about my old house falling apart, I'd insist on a damage clause.... of course, it'd help if had been inspected just a few days before the seismic shots were done. (for a benchmark). They did my entire county a few years back, and I didn't hear of a single broken window, or anything else...

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