Barnett Shale

New face Titan Operating is looking titanic

For a new company, Titan Operating is up and running like a veteran. In the past month it has won the endorsement of big neighborhood groups in Colleyville and North Arlington, and this week announced the financial backing of Riverstone Holdings, a $15 billion private equity firm with sizable energy holdings. Chalk up the fast start to Titan's founders, all experienced Barnett Shale producers. Titan Chairman Hollis Sullivan is also president of Wichita Falls-based Hollis R. Sullivan Inc., which in July was named as one of the sellers of $800 million worth of producing properties and leases in the Barnett Shale to XTO Energy. Other Titan co-founders are Christopher Hammack, former vice president of drilling and completions for Range Resources, and Mark Schumacher, who headed EnCana Oil & Gas USA’s Barnett Shale operations. Riverstone did not disclose the amount of its investment in Titan, but said it “made a significant capital commitment to Titan,” which it said will focus “on acquisitions and development in the Barnett Shale.”

Click here for the Star-Telegram's report on the transaction: Download titan_resources.doc

-- Jim Fuquay

CATS endorses Titan Resources/Caffey contract

CATS, the southwest Arlington group representing homeowners immediately east of Lake Arlington, said Monday it endorsed a lease with Titan Resources/Caffey Group and will hold informational meetings at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. Monday at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, 5819 W. Pleasant Ridge Dr. The CATS lease pays a $26,000/acre bonus and 25.5 percent royalty for a 3-year term (and a commitment to drill within 30 months), said organizer Jim MacDowell. He said the extra half-point royalty came from the owner of a planned drill site, near Bowman Springs and Shorewood, who contributed a portion of his override on the lease. Titan is affiliated with Hollis R. Sullivan, MacDowell said. He said the deal was the outcome of discussions with five parties that eventually came down to Titan and Paloma Resources, acting on behalf of Chesapeake Energy.

-- Jim Fuquay

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

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)

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)

Southwest Arlington group organizes

A Southwest Arlington group, which has begun to receive lease inquiries from Paloma Resources, is organizing in the Pleasant Ridge Road area around Miller Elementary School east of Lake Arlington.

The group, called CATS, is having a public meeting 7 p.m.-9 p.m. Monday Feb. 25 at the St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, 5819 W. Pleasant Ridge Road. Update! Click here to visit the group's new web site.

Some number of homeowners in the neighborhoods around Miller have received letters from Paloma indicating an interest in leasing minerals, said Jeff Richman, one of CATS' organizers. The letters don't specify terms, but when homeowners call Paloma, the company says it's offering a $15,000 per-acre signing bonus and 25 percent royalty, Richman said.

Richman said he and a committee member are having a private meeting with a Paloma principal this weekend.

"I'm not here to cheat the landmen," said Richman, a salesman of packaged trial-size toiletry products who adds "negotiating is just part of my everyday life."

"I'm just a facilitator," Richman says. "We're here to get the best deal we can and go on down the road."

CATS stands for Canalview, Townlake, and Shorewood, the initial three streets that Richman's group started to organize. Since then, the effort has grown and the group might be able to cover several thousand homes, Richman said. After he and committee members started canvassing their streets, for example, they ran into a homeowner in the Saddle Ridge Road area just to the north who was also organizing his neighborhood, Richman said.

Richman says his group plans to contact Carrizo Oil & Gas and XTO Energy to divine their interest in the area. Richman said he told Paloma's representative that CATS is seeking a $20,000 per-acre bonus and 30 percent royalty.

To contact Richman: jeffreyrichman@sbcglobal.net, (817) 572-2022 home, (773) 230-3601 cell.

-- Scott Nishimura

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