Barnett Shale

Grapevine leasing jumps Hall Johnson, goes south

A property owner in Grapevine south of Hall Johnson Road and west of Texas 121 reports receiving a letter from Davis Land Services, working the area on behalf of Chesapeake Energy. The letter says Davis will be sending out formal lease offers soon. It doesn't specify terms.

Leasing in Grapevine has been going on for months north of Hall Johnson Road and east of Texas 183, but hasn't pushed south of Hall Johnson.

Click here to read our previous Grapevine posts.

Click here to read our previous Colleyville posts, and here to read our Southlake posts.

-- Scott Nishimura

Mont Del lease: near-record bonus, HOA cash and a bench

Folks in Benbrook held out long enough and finally agreed to a deal with XTO Energy for a lease that will pay property owners a per-acre bonus of $22,500.

The Mont Del Estates Homeowners Association had been negotiating with both XTO Energy and Chesapeake Energy since the end of last year. Here's what we said about it at that time.

According to the signed lease offer dated today, here are more details of the lease:

• 25 percent royalty
• 3-year initial term with an option for another two years and another signing bonus then of $15,000 per acre
• Extra $12,500 will be paid by XTO to the homeowners assocation
• XTO will pay for a stone bench and will install it at the duck pond that is bound by Park and Mont Del. The bench is "subject to XTO's reasonable approval of the cost thereof."
• Property measured to the middle of the street
• XTO will located its drill site locations outside of an area bound by State Highway 183 on the north, Bryant Irvin Avenue on the east, Loop 820 on the south and the Trinity Rvier on the west.

XTO, which was represented by Carla Petroleum in the land lease, will hold a signing party within 30 days after it mails out offers to all homeowners within the group.

--David Wethe

Study: Texans should rely more on coal, nuclear

Here's Jim Fuquay's full S-T print story on recommendations from a Texas governor's task force that says Texans should rely less on expensive natural gas to generate electricity, and more on coal and nuclear plants.

-- Scott Nishimura

Weighing in the Barnett Shale...

There's no shortage of opinions on natural gas these days. Here's more print S-T stuff in recent days from North Texas economist Bud Weinstein, the Star-Telegram's editorial board, and business columnist Mitchell Schnurman.

And here's another recent S-T editorial on the impact of gas money on property tax appraisals.

-- Scott Nishimura

Let the pipeline debate begin...

Two summers ago, pipeline right-of-way agents were predicting that the gas pipelines being built to handle the Barnett Shale boom might affect more people than the wells themselves. Judging by the reaction when pipelines began running through neighborhoods, that prediction might turn out to be true.

• Fort Worth's gas drilling task force started digging into pipeline regulations Monday night. Here's the full story.
• At the same time, City Council in North Richland Hills passed its own pipeline regulations. Here's the story: http://www.star-telegram.com/northeast/story/719575.html
• And, folks in Meadowbrook over on Fort Worth's East Side are worried about a pipeline in their neighborhood. Here's the full story.

Judging by the number of spectator's at Fort Worth's meeting, pipelines are getting a lot of attention from neighborhood groups. Watch this space for more details.

-- Mike Lee

Energy companies go after college recruits

  Here's Jim Fuquay's story from the weekend on the energy industry's push to recruit fresh college grads into the industry.

-- Scott Nishimura

(Photos: Tarrant County College roustabout class)

Offers going up in Southwest Fort Worth area

The newly formed Southwest Fort Worth Alliance reported today that it's now up to 25 neighborhoods and includes more than 6,000 acres.

We told readers of the the Star-Telegram print edition last week about this newly merged super group. Click here for the story and to see which neighborhoods are part of the group.

Click here to see what we wrote on the blog earlier this year about the group.

The offers are also starting to tick up, but only to specific homeowners groups within the alliance. The alliance hasn't yet begun to negotiate as a group with the energy companies. The highest offer is now up to $25,000 an acre for lease bonuses and a 25 percent royalty, with the usual three-year primary term and an option for another two years.

Tolli Thomas, co-chair of the group, said the alliance is now looking to hold meetings with the drilling companies. The three that have circulated offers to various property owners in the group are Chesapeake Energy, XTO Energy and Carrizo Oil & Gas. Chesapeake and XTO each have multiple well sites that could perhaps reach most of the property owners, Thomas said. Carrizo has mostly gone after homeowners on the southen end of the group's boundaries.

--David Wethe

New Southlake group endorses XTO's $20,000 deal

XTO Energy has come away with another victory in the competitive northeast Tarrant County corridor.

This time it's with a relatively new group we've not mentioned on the Barnett Shale Blog.

The Southlake East Corridor Coalition has agreed to a deal with Bryson Kuba, on behalf of XTO. Here are the terms:

• $20,000 per-acre bonus
• 25 royalty, with no deduction of production costs
• 3-year term initially with an option for another two years with an additional $20,000 bonus

No word yet on where the signing parties will be held, but here are the signing dates:

• June 25, 6 p.m. - 9 p.m.
• June 28, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
• July 8, 6 p.m. - 9 p.m.
• July 12, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The drilling site is expected to be in Grapevine along HIghway 26, according to an e-mail that recently went out to all SECC members. While it doesn't give more details, this presumably is the site XTO has identified to another neighborhood group that is across from Grapevine High School.

The Southlake East Corridor Coalition consists of 350 property owners on about 500 acres. Its boundaries are Southlake Boulevard on the north, Highway 26 on the south, South Carroll on the west and the Grapevine boundary on the east. It includes the HOAs of:

• Cambridge Place
• Miracle Point
• South Hollow
• Versailles
• Woodland Heights

--David Wethe

XTO tries to move in on Chesapeake's Haltom deal

Folks in Haltom City are in a tizzy these days because XTO Energy is trying to upend the Haltom City Joint Neighorhood Committee's deal with Chesapeake Energy.

-- Scott Nishimura

Watauga group fires up, after XTO offers to some

First there was the Colleyville group, CAMRA. Now, it''s time to meet WAMRA.

It's the newest neighborhood group to form, and it's in Watauga. Officially it's the Watauga Area Mineral Rights Association.

The group's website (click here) should be up and running this evening. But if it's not, just keep checking back there for more details. Of course, the Barnett Shale Blog will also keep you updated on any news about WAMRA as well.

WAMRA recently held its third meeting and is up to 200 registered members. It's unclear at this point how large its acreage is yet.

The group at this point consists of members in the Greenfield Village neighborhood of Watauga, which is just northeast of the intersection for U.S. 377 and Watauga Road. The group is also close to Grace Hardeman Elementary and Watauga Middle School.

So far, several individual property owners have received offers from Holland Acquisitions, representing XTO Energy, said Cheron Stults, the leader of WAMRA. The offer includes a per-acre bonus of $10,000 and a 25 percent royalty as part a standard three-year lease with a two-year option. The option would pay another $10,000 bonus.

XTO has told the group that a potential drill site could sit near the northwest corner of 377 and Western Center Boulevard (which is what Watauga Road turns into as it goes west).

"That would reach us for sure," Stults said.

--David Wethe