Barnett Shale

Lease slowdown hits home

Some of the biggest producers and most active leasing companies in the Barnett Shale brought their leasing activities to a screeching halt this week, disappointing unsigned property owners and perhaps changing the market price of signing bonuses in the play for good. Among the disappointed landowners is Rorie Cowden, whose Hidden Valley miniature golf course on 5.5 acres bordering Jacksboro Highway is part of a Lake Worth negotiating group that signed the richest reported lease in the county: a $30,000-an-acre offer from Chesapeake.

"I was waiting for them to send me my lease packet," Cowden said Thursday, but he got nervous when he heard producers were cutting back. When he walked into the Vance Godbey’s restaurant, where signings were under way, he was told that the new bonus figure was $5,000. The difference: $137,500. "I did not sign," he said. "I never thought it would hit like this. The bubble has burst."

See the Star-Telegram's full report here.

-- Jim Fuquay

WAMRA sets Sept. 29 meeting

Watauga Area Mineral Rights Association (WAMRA), says it has scheduled a Sept. 29 meeting starting at 7 p.m. at the Northwood Church located at North Tarrant Parkway and Rufe Snow to present a leasing progress update to property owners. Organizers report that their attorney will review "the process we will be taking to secure the best lease we can for all.  All property owners in Watauga are welcome to attend."

WAMRA most recently reported preliminary contacts with Petrocasa. Previously the group has reported offers from Holland Acquisitions on behalf of XTO Energy and an offer from Spartan Geophysical for $13,000 per acre and a 25 percent royalty. Spartan also has been active in Parkwood Hill Estates, a north Fort Worth neighborhood just west of Watauga.

Overton, Southwest Fort Worth Alliance groups endorse leases

XTO Energy and newcomer Vantage Energy have won the latest endorsements from southwest Fort Worth homeowners groups representing thousands of property owners. The Overton Park and Overton West neighborhood associations, representing more than 800 homes covering about 350 acres, have set a Tuesday signing for a proposed contract with XTO and its agent, Holland Acquisitions. That lease offers a signing bonus of $25,000 an acre and a 25 percent royalty rate. And Southwest Fort Worth Alliance, representing more than 6,000 acres, has started information meetings on its deal with Vantage Energy and Caffey Group, which offers $27,500 an acre and 23 percent royalty.

XTO offered drill sites in locations that should minimize traffic disruptions and met safety concerns sought by residents, neighborhood organizers said. Bob Dellamura, president of the Overton Park Neighborhood Association, said the lease is an improved version of one XTO signed last year with nearby Tanglewood Neighborhood Association, and XTO’s presence in the area made it an attractive choice. XTO also agreed to donate a total of $70,000 to the neighborhood associations and improvement projects when it obtains leases covering 85 percent of the area. The neighborhoods are generally north of Southwest Loop 820, east of Hulen Street and west of Granbury Road. Those two neighborhoods were previously part of Southwest Fort Worth Alliance, but went their own way after Alliance leadership clammed up as if their talks were state secrets. The northern end of Foster Park, while also officially part of the Alliance, likewise can go its own way and join the Overton/XTO lease. Alliance leaders eventually released details of their lease Monday morning. The group says its three-year deal includes provisions to protect property owners within 1,000 feet of certain operations.

-- Jim Fuquay

North Hills group sets meeting

North Hills Mineral Owners Coalition plans a July 17 meeting at 7 p.m. at Richland Hills United Methodist Church, 7301 Glenview Drive. The group has been working since May, and over 300 people attended a June meeting. Yard signs with the group's logo will be sold for $5. Organizers report meeting with another neighborhood  group from around the Iron Horse golf course, which separately conferred with landmen with Dale Resources on behalf of Chesapeake Energy and Holland Acquisitions on behalf of XTO Energy. The group notes that the city of North Richland Hills in June  leased two parks to Harding Co. for $20,000 an acre (up from $2,500 three years earlier.)

-- Jim Fuquay

360 NW Coalition getting closer to a deal

The 360 Northwest Coalition says on its Web site that it's getting close to a deal.

The group runs along the west side of State Highway 360 and Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, north of Mid-Cities Boulevard. Leaders of the group, which is in Grapevine and Euless, are negotiating with representatives of Chesapeake Energy and XTO Energy.

Regardless, Cimmaron Field Services, acting on behalf of Chesapeake, is still sending out offers to individual property owners in hopes of picking people off one by one. The latest offer is for a per-acre bonus of $18,500, a 25 percent royalty and an initial three-year term.

The neighborhood group said on its Web site that it's a "last-ditch effort" to get property owners to sign a lease that favors the drilling company rather than the homeowner. The offer is "a powerful validation that our organization and negotiations efforts are succeeding," according to its Web site.

The 360 Northwest Coalition has been talking with XTO and Chesapeake since May and is close to finalizing the legal terms of a lease. It will then work on negotiating the "economics of the lease," according to the Web site.

The group is telling members to hold off on signing anything until a lease is endorsed by the 360 Northwest Coalition.

Chesapeake/Cimmaron has agreed to immediately cease their direct-sale tactics whenever a property owner tells them they are a member of the 360 Northwest Coalition. ... Simply inform the solicitor that you are a registered member of the 360 Northwest Coalition and you are part of our group negotiations. Chesapeake/Cimmaron has agreed to honor that and will immediately end the call.

Here's what we've said about this group before.

--David Wethe

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

Leasing cranks up in Bedford

There appears to be some leasing activity in Bedford, despite the fact that an ordinance passed in January essentially limits drilling to only one location -- a park controlled by the Hurst Euless Bedford school district.

Here's a run down on what's been happening in Bedford lately:

• The Concordia Lutheran Church on Harwood Road, just east of Texas 121, signed a natural-gas lease last month with Holland Acquisitions, representing XTO Energy, that pays a $15,000-per-acre bonus, a royalty of 25 percent and a three-year term, said Hank Henning, the church's executive director. Concordia teamed up with another nearby church to make it a 10-acre group for the lease. Chesapeake Energy was willing to match all of the terms except for the length, offering only a 5-year lease, Henning said.
• The Woodfield Homeowners Association, near Cheek-Sparger Road and Central Drive, is saying on its website that Woodland Heights Baptist Church has contacted the neighborhood group about pooling its acreage with the church for negotiating gas leases. Hank Henning, who happens to be a resident of the Woodfield neighborhood, said his group consists of 168 homes and is about 80 to 100 acres in size. The Baptist church has been meeting with representatives of XTO and Chesapeake for a while and is up to $13,500 for the latest per-acre bonus offer, Henning said.
• We just learned that in October, months before Bedford passed its ordinance allowing limited drilling, Chesapeake purchased a vacant 10-acre tract behind an abandoned United Artists movie theater in Bedford, according to records from the Tarrant Appraisal District. The location is just northeast of the corner of 121 and 183. This could have been a potential drilling site, but perhaps now is not eligible with the new Bedford ordinance.

Here's more about what we've said of leasing activity in Bedford.

--David

Southeast Arlington neighborhoods organize, hold meetings

Southeast Arlington neighborhoods with more than 8,000 residents and occupying about 2,300 hundred acres have organized to negotiate mineral rights leases with plans for meetings this week.

 

The group, called SEAPO for Southeast Arlington Property Owners, have formed an organizing committee and plan meetings Thursday and Friday night at 7 p.m. at Mayfield Road Baptist Church, 1701 E. Mayfield Road. Translators for Spanish and Vietnamese will be on hand. 

 

The group's model lease is based on one used by Southwest Arlington Property Owners, or SWAPO. SEAPO has set up a Web site, www.seapo.org and is asking residents who have not already registered, to sign in and fill out a form to get them on the neighborhood list.

   

A meeting at the church Monday night drew a crowd too large for the church, an organizer said.

Even with ice and snow, "we had 500 people in a place that seats 350," said organizer Jim Colley. "We had people parked four and five blocks away just to get tot he meeting."

   

The group sent mailers to 8,000 addresses, not counting apartments and commercial businesses,  in the area outlined by Texas 360 to the east, Interstate 20 to the south, Matlock Road to the west and Arkansas Lane to the north.

The group organized after getting solicitations to lease mineral rights to Holland Acquisitions, Colley said.

   

SEAPO has sent requests for proposals to several drilling companies and has received interest from at least three, Colley added. The group has not identified possible drilling sites. "That will be up to the drilling companies," Colley said.

   

Deadline for sealed bids is Tuesday, March 11 at 6 p.m., Colley said.

--  Bill Bowen

Southeast Arlington neighborhoods to organize

Mineral rights leasing and drilling for natural gas continues to move eastward.

In recent days, residents in the neighborhoods roughly bounded by Texas 360, Mayfield Road, Collins Street South and Interstate 20 have received mailed solicitations from Holland Acquisitions, apparently representing Paloma Resources.

Residents say the mailer says the company has secured a well site location and says that land men will be working in the area to discuss offers. Specifics of bonus payments, royalty rates or the term of the agreement are not included in the mailer.

Meanwhile, some residents are hustling to organize the neighborhood to negotiate with the company.

"We haven't done much yet but make some fliers and send a man around to walk the neighborhood," said Jim Colley. "We're trying to get the word out: 'Don't sign a lease until we can get together and see what we can do together.' "

Those interested in more information, can contact Colley at: hillsidegroup@yahoo.com

-- Bill Bowen

(Photos: Mousetrap-powered vehicle race at Sam Houston High School; in the school's cosmetology lab)

Brentwood/Oak Hills relieved over drilling site

The residents in th Brentwood-Oak Hills neighborhood may have won an important victory over a high-impact drilling site.

Back in the fall, Paloma Resources and its leasing company, Holland Acquisitions, was trying to get waivers for a high impact drilling permit from residents who live near the New Beginnings Church on East Loop 820. The waivers would allowed the company to begin drilling the site without holding a hearing in front of the City Council. Fort Worth's drilling ordinance doesn't allow gas wells within 600 feet of homes without a hearing or waivers from all the affected land owners.

Paloma sold its leases to Chesapeake Energy though, and neighborhood association president Rita Vinson said Chesapeake probably won't use the site because it is "unpermittable."

Vinson also said in an e-mail that Holland Resources, which was leasing mineral rights for Paloma, has backed off of some of its aggressive tactics. Landmen from the company was telling residents as late as last week that their bonus payments would drop if they didn't sign by March 1. Holland officials told Vinson that the two landmen who had been making those statements have been fired.

Holland officials touched off a firestorm in October when they called the police on a group of Brentwood residents who were picketing one of the company's leasing meetings. Some of the residents were given warning tickets for criminal trespass outside a church. Vinson said the police later apologized.

-- Mike Lee