Barnett Shale

CATS (SW Arl) says offers are strengthening

The CATS (Southwest Arlington) group says it's clamming up on the specifics of offers it's receiving while negotiation with leasing companies is underway. But here's an interesting exit line on the latest update the group posted on its blog: "We have already received offers in excess of the (Little Green Ark/MANA) contract and expect even better offers in the future."

The Little Green Ark/MANA deal is for, among other things, a $22,000-per-acre lease bonus

CATS is also inviting property owners in the Little Green Ark boundaries to sit tight and wait to see if CATS can get them a better deal.

-- Scott Nishimura

Signing meetings for Little Green Ark neighborhoods

Lease signing meetings are being held tonight ( Monday, 3/24 ) and next Monday (3/31 ) at Lake Arlington Baptist Church for residents of portions of the Little Green Ark neighborhoods of southwest Arlington. Hours are from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The specific neighborhoods signing at these meetings include:

• Alexander Place -  All property owners on Sausalito Drive
• Greenwood Hill Addition - Property owners from 4606 Lester Dr. thru 4717 Lester Dr.;  all property owners of Ironwood Ct. and Basswood Ct.
• Oak Valley Estates -  All property owners of Oak Valley Dr.; property owners from 2800 Bonneville Dr. thru 4904 Bonneville Dr.
• Quail Hollow On The Lane Addition - Property owners on all streets
• Whisperton Addition - Property owners on both streets
• Wooded Acres Addition - Property owners on all streets

Neighborhood representatives agreed last week to terms of a standard mineral rights leasing offer for area residents and landowners with Paloma Resources, including a $22,000 per acre signing bonus and 25 percent royalties.

Residents are asked to bring official identification, such as a driver license.  Married couples and multiple owners listed on a deed must attend together.

Lease signing dates for other property owners in the area will be announced soon.

-- Bob Cox

(Photo: WinterFest at Lake Arlington Baptist Church)

Another $22,000 lease offer (MANA) in Arlington

MANA -- Murwick-Area Neighbors Association -- of southwest Arlington is celebrating a $22,000-per-acre lease offer.

The group said tonight it has "received a firm offer" from Paloma Resources, acting on behalf of Chesapeake Energy, calling for a $22,000-per-acre signing bonus, 25 percent cost-free royalty, three-year lease, and two-year option.

MANA leaders said the group is "pleased" to announce the offer. "We have been working hard through the weekend going over the deal that was offered," MANA said.

It's the latest per-acre bonus that reached the same level. SEAPO (Southeast Arlington Property Owners) announced on Friday that it reached an agreement with Paloma for $22,000 per acre and a 25 percent cost-free royalty. That group is now getting courted by agents for Carrizo Oil & Gas, offering a $25,000 bonus but lesser royalty.

MANA advised homeowners to hold off acting on their leases until the group signs off on a recommended lease with Paloma. Carrizo also is interested in the MANA territory.

"How that we have announced this fantastic information, we expect to have unscrupulous landmen trying to sign up MANA homeowners with non-MANA-approved leases, different amounts for the signing bonus, and/or royalty payments," MANA says on its web site. "We have see many underhanded tactics done to other neighborhood groups that, unfortunately, we have to be prepared for."

MANA is bounded by Interstate 20 on the south, Kelly Elliott on the east, Mayfield Road on the north, and Little Road and Green Oaks on the west. Click here to view a map of the group's coverage area.

-- Scott Nishimura

(Photos: Veterans Day at Little Elementary, special sunrise service at Saint Barnabas United Methodist)

MANA in SW Arlington says Carrizo enters bidding

Murwick Area Neighborhood Association in southwest Arlington reports that they have been working with Carburante Land/Carrizo Oil & Gas since those companies won the backing of SWAPO2, south of MANA. The group also reports that is talking to XTO Energy, which is active to its north, and Chesapeake Energy, active to the east. Organizer Leesa Altschul says the group's negotiators are "very close to announcing our decision."

Seems MANA is having a little trouble getting its news out on the streets. Altschul says the city of Arlington picked up its professionally produced signs, a problem that also has occurred in Fort Worth as city code officers enforced a ban on posting signs on public property or rights-of-way.

--Jim Fuquay

(Photo: Water balloon contest at Martin HIgh School)

Happy Days in Arlington...

The middle-class homeowners who make up Southeast Arlington Property Owners (SEAPO) may be ecstatic over the record-busting $22,000-per-acre bonus their neighborhood negotiators just scored in a sealed-bid lease competition.

But there may be a happier guy in Arlington. That's Jeff Richman, an organizer of the west Arlington neighborhood group CATS, which is trying to organize a big portion of homeowners around Lake Arlington and keep them from bolting and signing an $18,000-per-acre offer from Permian Land Services, which is working the area on behalf of XTO Energy. The $18k was among the previous tops in neighborhood lease offers in the Barnett Shale.

"That's great news," Richman said last night when he learned of the SEAPO deal, which Paloma Resources offered on behalf of Chesapeake Energy.

The CATS crew is organizing property owners in the area from I-20 on the south to Pioneer Parkway on the north, Little Road on the east, and Lake Arlington on the west. (Click here to read our previous post on CATS and click here to visit the group's web site.) It's a huge area that even aspires to include the smaller Little Green Ark group at Little Road and Arkansas Lane.

The CATS and Little Green Ark groups are discussing a possible linkup. Richman says somebody claiming to represent CATS told Little Green Ark homeowners at a meeting Thursday night that CATS was already too big for Little Green Ark.

But Richman says that claim is not true, no committee members  from CATS attended the Little Green Ark's meeting, and that CATS is still interested in talks with Little Green Ark.

"I talked to all my committee members and no committee members were even at that meeting last night," Richman said Friday. Why not? Because CATS wants to respect Little Green Ark's organizing efforts, he said.

He also said chatter emerged from a Paloma lease meeting that CATS' organizers don't live in Arlington. All of CATS' organizers live in the neighborhoods and the group is not paying for outside advice, he said. He said an attorney from Fort Worth is advising CATS pro-bono.

"People ask me, well, what are you getting paid?" says Richman, who is a salesman of packaged trial-size toiletry products and says he's lived in Arington for years. "I'm not getting paid a cent."

CATS' task of organizing hundreds of homes that fall under 20 homeowner associations has been daunting, Richman said. He acknowledges some homeowners may have already signed leases at meetings that land agents for Paloma Resources have been holding, (Paloma is offering to sign leases in the area on behalf of Chesapeake Energy, but its offered terms are lower at this point.)

Richman said homeowners who are signing may not be aware of CATS' efforts to organize property owners.

"We're doing a good job," Richman said. "I know we could be doing better. We don't have a budget. We all work. It's hard for us to get all this done."

-- Scott Nishimura

(Photos: Lake Arlington)

SW Arlington group organizes

An estimated 200 residents of the Little Green Ark neighborhood of southwest Arlington met at Lake Arlington Baptist Church Thursday night for an informational meeting about organizing to negotiate mineral leasing rights as a group.

It was the second meeting in a week for residents of the area bounded on the west by Green Oaks Blvd., Arkansas on the north, Little Road on the east and Mayfield road to the south.

Many residents of the area have been solicited in the last two weeks by Paloma Resources with offers to lease mineral rights for $16,750 an acre plus 25 percent royalties. But speakers told the group they may be able to negotiate better terms, since the church had agreed to a lease for $18,900 an acre and residents of the areas around Lake Arlington were seeking a $20,000 an acre lease agreement.

Leaders of the group said they would begin efforts to organize a negotiating committee to work with Paloma or other drilling and leasing companies.

- Bob Cox

(Photo: Sing-along at Ditto Elementary)

Woodland West (West Arl.) offer gets better

Things are looking up for a small group of Woodland West (West Arlington) homeowners that's still trying to negotiate a neighborhood lease agreement.

Mel Goodson, chairman of the group, says Axia Land Services, which is signing leases in the neighborhood on behalf of Chesapeake Energy, is now verbally offering the group two choices: a $12,500-per-acre signing bonus with a 25 percent net royalty, or a $15,000 per-acre bonus with a 22 percent net royalty.

Goodson, who lives in another part of Woodland West that signed up at better terms, says the group "resoundingly declined" Axia's offer at a neighborhood meeting.

"We are concerned that the net costs of production and transportation would negate any royalty payments," he said.

The group, which is in the southeast portion of Woodland West, is the last part of the neighborhood that hasn't negotiated a community agreement. Click here to visit the group's web site.

-- Scott Nishimura

(Photo: Woodland West park)

MANA in SW Arlington seeks signatures

Murwick Area Neighbors Association in southwest Arlington is asking homeowners in their area to sign a memorandum of intent to participate in the group's mineral rights lease negotiations, which have narrowed down to Permian Land Services, on behalf of XTO Energy, and Paloma Resources, on behalf of Chesapeake Energy. Organizers estimate they have about 1,000 homes in their area.

To see a map of the group's boundaries and other information, visit the group's Web site at www.mana76016.com.

-- Jim Fuquay

SW Arlington group reports drill site

Little Green Ark, a new neighborhood group in southwest Arlington, reports that Paloma Resources has signed a lease for a drilling site on land owned by Lake Arlington Baptist Church, 2912 Little Road. The group says it would open to development the area located south of Arkansas Road, east of Green Oaks Boulevard and west of Little Road. The group figures it has most of the Wooded Acres neighborhood, but perhaps a third of the overall area.

The group's area  falls within the proposed boundaries of the much larger CATS group, and there are discussions to see if Little Green Ark should join forces with CATS. For out latest post on CATS, click here. In the meantime, Little Green Ark has meetings planned for March 4 and March 6, both at 7 p.m. at the Lake Arlington Baptist Church sanctuary.

-- Jim Fuquay

Having a meeting on the Barnett Shale? Publicize it here, on our Community Calendar!

Lake Arlington groups merge, eye $18k bonus offer

The Barnett Shale's meant good business for churches lately. Neighborhood gas lease meetings have overrun private homes and the local Starbucks. Now they're overrunning the local church.

Not that the churches have any problem with that. Latest case: the St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church on Pleasant Ridge Road at Green Oaks Boulevard in southwest Arlington, host of back-to-back nightly meetings this week for two Lake Arlington-area neighborhood groups that brought in several hundred homeowners. The second meeting, hosted by the CATS group, drew 1,500 people Monday night, was standing room-only, and triggered traffic jams on Green Oaks, said Jeff Richman, jeffreyrichman@sbcglobal.net, one of CATS' organizers.

At the meeting, CATS agreed to merge with another group, Lake Arlington Property Owners, that -- like CATS -- was also organizing homeowners in the area around Miller Elementary School and hosted its own meeting at the church, Richman said.

The new, larger group will be called CATS, Richman said. Its boundaries stretch from I-20 on the south to Pioneer Parkway on the north, Little Road on the east to Lake Arlington on the west.

Homeowners in the neighborhoods have received lease offers from Paloma Resources on behalf of Chesapeake Energy, and Permian Land on behalf of XTO Energy. Paloma is offering a $15,000 per-acre signing bonus and 25 percent royalty Permian is offering an $18,000 per-acre bonus and 25 percent royalty. Both are offering three-year terms, with two-year renewals. Not all homes have received both offers, Richman said.

"Neither one has blanketed the area," said Richman, a salesman of packaged trial-size toiletry products who has taken so many calls since he began organizing CATS that he says his wife Kathie now answers the phone, "Jeff Richman's personal secretary."

Richman said CATS is working on signing up homeowners, getting them to hold off signing leases, and determining whether any drilling company has secured drill sites. Next up after that: Contacting companies that have drill sites, he said.

While the XTO bonus is among the highest neighborhood bonus offered in Tarrant County, Richman said CATS believes it can do better on the bonus. He also said the group wants to negotiate the best possible royalty structure, acreage measurements for purposes of calculating the bonuses and royalties, "and all the little extras that add up." He also said it's important to go with a drilling company that has secured drill sites.

Click here to visit CATS' web site.

Click here to read our previous post on CATS.

-- Scott Nishimura

Having a meeting on the Barnett Shale? Click here to publicize it on our Community Calendar!

(Photos: Lake Arlington, Miller Elementary kids donate stuffed animals to Arlington Police; Alamo history program at Miller Elementary)