Barnett Shale

Mansfield ordinance would bar Debbie Lane sites

The Mansfield Planning and Zoning Commission is considering an ordinance that would bar a drill site within 1,000 feet of a school, hospital, nursing home, or the city's police station. Click here to read a copy of the draft ordinance. The relevant part is under the "required setbacks" section.

Turns out the 1,000 feet would bar both the Edge Resources and Dale Resources drill sites in the Debbie Lane Pool area, because of proximity to schools, the neighborhood group's leaders are telling property owners.

Steven Polozola, lead organizer, testified before the P&Z Monday and is asking property owners send letters to the city. The group has drafted a sample letter. Visit the group's Yahoo! site for updates and to get a copy of this letter. You'll have to "Join This Group" to get in.

Polozola tells property owners in an email update that several P&Z commissioners oppose the 1,000-foot provision.

"Without everyone's support, there may not be any royalties in the future," he says in the email. The Debbie Lane Pool, which recommended a lease offer with Edge Resources to property owners, has just finished a series of lease signing parties with Edge. Click here to read our previous posts on the Debbie Lane Pool.

-- Scott Nishimura

(Archive photo: Mansfield water tower)

What happens in Mansfield stays in Mansfield...

Gas lease offers have topped $25,000 thus far for Mansfield South United's neighborhoods. Does that portend a record-shattering deal? Try getting any information out of the secretive MSU, which goes by the mantra "What happens in MSU stays in MSU."

Grande Energy, in partnership with Range Resources, has the latest public offer, at $25,000 per acre. That info is out because Grande sends its offers directly to property owners. MSU's leaders also tell homeowners they're negotiating with XTO Energy, and suggest in recent communications that XTO is the favored bidder among negotiating committee members.

Finally, Mansfield South abuts the Debbie Lane Pool group, which recently struck an agreement with Edge Resources that Dale Resources is now trying to upend. Some homeowners around Grande's well site at Walnut Creek Country Club fall into both MSU and the Debbie Lane Pool.

MSU isn't giving specifics to homeowners on its negotiations. What exactly goes on in those meetings?

-- Scott Nishimura

Dale tries to crash Edge's party in Mansfield

Leaders of Mansfield's Debbie Lane Pool, which has negotiated a lease deal with Edge Resources, are trying to keep their property owners together after Dale Resources entered the fray with offers.

The Debbie Lane Pool, which represents 17 neighborhoods, negotiated a lease bonus of $17,500 and a 23 percent royalty that doesn't include subtractions for costs. Dale earlier this week began distributing offers that included an $18,500 lease bonus and 25 percent royalty (it's not clear how the royalty is structured), and Dale scheduled lease signing meetings to try and head off the Edge Resources meetings that begin April 14. (Click here to read our previous posts on the Debbie Lane Group.)

Dale's offer "has caused a freaking panic among people," Stephen Polozola, lead organizer of the Debbie Lane Pool, says. Click here to visit the group's Yahoo! web group. You'll need to "Join the Group" to get updates.

One of the major reasons the neighborhood group went with Edge is because the company has already secured a drill site off of Debbie Lane, he notes. Dale hasn't secured a drill site, although Polozola said the company apparently is under contract for a site at the southeast corner of Walnut Creek and Debbie Lane.

"The last thing we want to see is our group checkerboarded" with Edge and Dale leases, which would compromise either company's ability to drill, Polozola said.

"Our position is we have approved a lease from Edge. We have not approved the offer from Dale," Polozola said.

We blogged last night about new offers from Range Resources and Grande Energy going to homeowners in the Walnut Creek Valley addition, which is part of the Debbie Lane Pool. It's also part of the Mansfield South United group. Those companies' planned drill site at the Walnut Creek Country Club cannot reach the bulk of the Debbie Lane Pool, Polozola said.

The Debbie Lane Pool/Edge lease signing meetings are 5:30 p.m.-9 p.m. April 14-17 at the Brooks Wester Middle School cafeteria, 1520 N. Walnut Creek Drive.

The neighborhoods included in the Debbie Lane Pool are Aubu rn Park, Pleasant Acres, The Trails, Dover Heights, Antigua I-IV, Ember Creek, Claremont, Walnut Creek North, Shannon Creek, The Oaks, Bryant Place Addition, Walnut Creek Connection, Walnut Creek Valley, Farmington Estates, Country Hill Park, Hunters Row, Matlock Center Addition, Walnut Creek Corner, Walnut Creek Manor, Walnut Creek Plaza West, Sherbrook HOA, and Walnut Creek School. Here's the Walnut Creek North HOA's web site, which has lease updates.

-- Scott Nishimura

(Photo: Jivin in the Gym, Zooniversity, 50's dance, Texana History at Boren Elementary)

Mansfield South United's lot gets better, overnight

Property owners in the Mansfield South United group are seeing better offers.

A Mansfield property owner in the Walnut Creek Valley neighborhood reports Range Resources/Grande Energy has freshened up its offer. The offered terms, mailed to homeowners: $25,000 per acre, 25 percent royalty, three-year term, and two-year option at $25,000 per acre. Here are our previous posts on Mansfield South United.

Because of the location of the drill site at Walnut Creek Country Club, at least some portions of Walnut Creek Valley are part of both the Mansfield South and Debbie Lane Pool groups.

-- Scott Nishimura

Mansfield lease signing meetings set...

Mansfield's Debbie Lane Pool coalition has scheduled lease signing meetings with Edge Resources.

All are 5:30 p.m.-9 p.m. April 14-17, at the Brooks Wester Middle School cafeteria, 1520 North Walnut Creek Drive, Mansfield.

Edge has also opened a Mansfield office, 2400 North U.S. 287, Suite 114, (817) 539-2220.

Here's our previous post on the deal between Edge and the neighborhood group.

Click here to visit the Walnut Creek North HOA site, which lists the neighborhoods included and more about the agreement.

-- Scott Nishimura

Mansfield homeowners look forward to lease signings

A group of Mansfield neighborhoods is scheduling lease signing meetings this month with Edge Resources LLC. Edge has agreed to pay homeowners in the Debbie Lane Pool coalition a $17,500-per- acre signing bonus, 23 percent royalty free of production and transportation costs, three-year primary term, and one-year renewal option at $11,000 per acre. Lease signing meetings are expected in April, the group is telling its members. Here's more on that from one of the neighborhood associations involved in the agreement. We're trying to get some more information on lease signings from the group.

-- Scott Nishimura

(Photo: Walnut Creek playground)

Mansfield sees more lease offers

Mansfield residents who live off of Debbie Lane will be seeing some lease offers.

Edge Resources LLC, a Fort Worth startup formed this year, has sent out fliers in recent weeks to property owners living near a drill site it says it's leased on the south side of Debbie Lane, between U.S. 287 and North Walnut Creek Drive.

The fliers tell property owners Edge has leased the drill site and will soon send out lease offers. Edge's Chris Smith tells Blogging the Barnett Shale that Edge has sent out lease offers to property owners in a radius around the drill site.

"If they haven't already gone out to everybody in that radius, they certainly will," Smith said. He said the site is the only one in Mansfield that Edge has secured thus far.

Smith said Edge is also signing up leases in Aledo and Grandview, and is working with Petroleum Land Services to secure leases in Parker County. Edge's key players are mostly former Four Sevens Oil Co. people, Smith said.

He said Edge does not intend to be a "flipper of leases."

"We're not going to go into and lease a subdivision unless we have the drill site," he said. "We're not going to be flipping leases."

Blogging the Barnett Shale has reported other leasing activity in Mansfield, including in the Walnut Creek area. Click here to read our previous posts.

Click here to visit the Debbie Lane Pool's web site.

-- Scott