Barnett Shale

Grapevine neighborhoods join forces

Three Grapevine neighborhoods east of Texas 121 in the Glade Road area have signed a notice of intent to be represented by two independent landmen in any negotiations on a group gas lease, the group is reporting.

The Glade Crossing Neighborhood Association, Shadow Glen association, and Saybrooke association signed the notice last week, comprising a block of 1,500 homes, Chris Warton, president of the Glade Crossing association said today. Here's a link to their web site, which has contact information for the group. The neighborhoods are north of Glade Road, east of Baze Road, and west of Euless Main, and go north of Hughes.

The associations have also spoken to organizers of a coalition of Grapevine neighborhoods west of 121 and north of Hall Johnson Road about joining up, which would comprise a total block of 3,500 homes, Warton said. He said the group might also be interested in joining up with neighborhoods in Euless south of Glade Road. The neighborhoods west of 121 and north of Hall-Johnson have organized into a group called DFW West Homeowners; here's a link to their web site and contact information.

All of the neighborhoods began receiving offers in the fall from Cimmaron Field Services, acting on behalf of Chesapeake Energy. The offers: $3,000-per-acre signing bonus, 20 percent royalty, five-year term, no surface access rights. Here are our previous posts on Grapevine and our previous posts on Euless.

Warton said his group's goal is to try and win the financial terms of the lease deal that Dallas/Fort Worth Airport signed (about $10,000 per acre signing bonus), plus ensure environmental safeguards and try and get as short a term as possible. Chesapeake is drilling at the airport, which is just east of the Grapevine and Euless neighborhoods and could drill underneath the neighborhoods from there, the neighborhoods believe.

"We are not as concerned about the money as much as where the drill goes, what the noise is, how long the term is," said Warton, deputy head of standards for an aerospace company's Dallas training center.

Nobody besides Chesapeake appears to be in the picture for the leases, which diminishes the group's bargaining power, Warton acknowledged. But the group has "the fact that we are so large, and we can just say we're not interested. You'll shut down hundreds of homes."

Warton said his group found the two landmen through a Saybrooke homeowner, who knew one of them. One of the organizers of the neighborhoods west of 121 also is an independent landman.

-- Scott Nishimura

(Photo: Grapevine's Pleasant Glade Pool)

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

Grapevine-Euless HOAs ask owners to hold off

Here's Jim Fuquay's story from today on leasing in Grapevine and Euless. And here are our previous posts on leasing in the two cities.

-- Scott Nishimura

Getting on the ball: Grapevine

Blogging the Barnett Shale continues to receive updates from property owners in Grapevine subdivisions west of Texas 121 and D/FW Airport, north of Hall Johnson Road, east of Pool Road and south of Mustang Drive. An increasing number of property owners also are interested in helping organize those neighborhoods.

For the sake of user-friendliness, as we hear about them, we're adding the new neighborhoods from that area on this post. You'll find comments from property owners who want to organize on that post, this second post and a third.

Additionally, you'll find updates from the nearby Euless/Glade Road neighborhoods in Euless and Grapevine that report receiving the same offer on this post. It also includes comments from property owners who want to organize.

All posts have updated contact info on Cimmaron Field Services. And, our apologies to Cimmaron for misspelling the company's name. All references are correct now.

Thanks again for reading us!

-- Scott Nishimura

Euless-GVine homeowners near D/FW report offers

Euless and Grapevine property owners in neighborhoods just west of D/FW Airport, east of Texas 121 and off of Glade Road report the same lease offer that residents of several nearby Grapevine neighborhoods have received from Cimmaron Field Services on behalf of Chesapeake Energy.

The neighborhoods that have reported their offers to Blogging the Barnett Shale:

• Arbormont Estates, east of Baze Road, north of Glade, west of Euless Grapevine Road and Texas 360, Grapevine.
• Cinnamon Ridge, east of 121, south of Glade Road, west of Texas 360, east of North Euless Main Street, Euless.
• Quail Run Estates, east of 121, south of Glade Road, and west of North Main Street, Euless.
• Glade Crossing, east of Baze Road, north of Glade Road, and west of Euless Grapevine Road and Texas 360, Grapevine.
• Glade Manor, east of North Euless Main Street, south of Glade Road, west of Texas 360, Euless.

The terms: $3,000-per-acre signing bonus, 20 percent royalty, five-year term, no surface access rights.

Homeowners report Cimmaron is holding a series of lease signing meetings. The last two are scheduled Dec. 17 and Dec. 19 at Colleyville Center.

Grapevine homeowners have reported a series of lease offers west of 121 that are identiical to the ones in Euless. The Grapevine homeowners believe the drill sites could be at D/FW Airport, where Chesapeake has been drilling.

Getting organized: A Glade area property owner wants to organize property owners -- he says the Glade area has a high number of landlord-owned properties, which will make organizing more difficult -- to get the best possible terms. Contact Phil Huddleston at pdh6251@aol.com.

-- Scott Nishimura

(Photo: Shopping center goes up at southeast corner of Texas 121 and Glade Road)

Talking amongst themselves: Grapevine homeowners

By day, Bob Ball sells software for Success Factors, a San Mateo, Calif., company that's just gone public. As if he didn't have his hands full with that job, Ball, who lives in Grapevine and is president of the Windsor Forest Homeowner Association, is ready to jump into the Barnett Shale scrum. "I'm just multi-tasking," he says.

Windsor Forest is one of several Grapevine neighborhoods, just west of D/FW Airport and Texas 121, and north of Hall Johnson near Parr Park, that received gas lease offers in the last week from Cimmaron Field Services on behalf of Chesapeake Energy. To read our previous posts on Grapevine leasing, click here. And for a list of Grapevine neighborhood associations and contacts, click here.

Ball says about 25 Windsor Forest homeowners met Saturday to discuss what to do next. Among their first concerns: Figure out where Chesapeake wants to drill from. Given Grapevine's restrictive drilling ordinance, the homeowners believe Chesapeake may want to drill from its its sites at D/FW, which Ball figures is a mile or so "as the crow flies" from Windsor Forest.

The Windsor Forest association has just 45 homes and is interested in "uniting" with other Grapevine area associations to collectively negotiate lease terms, Ball says. To contact Ball, send him an email at rball@successfactors.com or call him at (817) 456-1144.

Other Grapevine homeowners are interested in getting organized. Read their comments at the end of this earlier blog post.

-- Scott

(Photos: Soccer drills at Parr Park, an American Eagle jet on approach to D/FW)