Barnett Shale

Watauga group reports $13,000 Spartan lease offer

Watauga Area Mineral Rights Association (WAMRA), which has already reported offers from Holland Acquisitions on behalf of XTO Energy, says Spartan Geophysical has jumped into the area with an offer for $13,000 per acre and a 25 percent royalty. It is the second time in as many weeks that Spartan has surfaced. Barely a week ago a homeowner in Parkwood Hill Estates, a north Fort Worth neighborhood just west of Watauga, reported an identical offer from Spartan, which lists a southwest Fort Worth address. WAMRA organizer Cheron Stults, in a posting on the group's  Web site, said she is encouraged that the new offer suggests the area is gaining visibility, but recommended that homeowners  not sign a lease, but instead work with the organization.

WAMRA 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. Stults has said XTO's 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. In Parkwood Hill Estates, a neighborhood of fewer than 100 homes, one homeowner reported that a landman said Spartan has been active in Oklahoma. The landman said that about 150 residents have signed in an area roughly bounded by Teal on the west. North Tarrant Parkway on the north, Indiana Springs Road on the east and Chapman on the south. That area includes the Park Glen development. Parkwood Hill has scheduled a meeting Thursday, July 24, to discuss leasing at Alliance Baptist Church, 8400 Park Vista Blvd., at 7 p.m.

-- Jim Fuquay

Parkwood Estates gets $13,000 offer, sets meeting

Parkwood Hill Estates, a North Fort Worth neighborhood of fewer than 100 homes, has set a natural gas leasing meeting for 7 p.m. Thursday, July 24, at Alliance Baptist Church, 8400 Park Vista Blvd. The neighborhood reports receiving lease offers with a $13,000/acre bonus and 25 percent royalty from Spartan Geophysical. A landman said it is the first Barnett Shale venture for Spartan, which has been active in Oklahoma. The landman said that  about 150 residents have signed in an area roughly bounded by Teal on the west. North Tarrant Parkway on the north, Indiana Springs Road on the east and Chapman on the south. That area includes the Park Glen development. Spartan has made an identical offer in the Watauga area.

Parkwood Estates homeowners are trying to organize to negotiate jointly, but the neighborhood  has no formal homeowners' association. Parkwood Estates is bounded by North Tarrant Parkway on the north, Parkwood Hill Boulevard on the east, Redwood Trail on the south and the Park Glen development on the west. The general area east of Beach Street and north of Basswood Boulevard is largely undrilled, according to Texas Railroad Commission filings.

-- Jim Fuquay

North Richland Hills, Watauga homeowners organize

Property owners in North Richland Hills and Watauga are organizing to try and improve their lease offers.

The North Richland Hills Mineral Alliance is meeting 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Life Church, 7850 Davis Boulevard in North Richland Hills. Bob West, an oil and gas attorney fresh off of assisting in the negotiation of a community lease in North Benbrook, is speaking.

Lease offers in the North Richland Hills-Watauga area offer signing bonuses of $1,500 to $4,000 per acre, 18-25 percent royalties, and five-year terms, the group reports. "The lease form that you will be required to use will be vague, will probably leave you open for potential problems in the future, and will probably give the gas company the right to charge a greater portion of the production and sales costs to you before calculating your royalties," the group says on its web site. Click here to visit the site.

The group says it wants to improve on the bonus and royalty offers and negotiate "customized leases designed to protect the mineral rights owner."

-- Scott Nishimura

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

Watauga homeowners seek better deal from Harding

Pete Beierschmitt thinks Watauga homeowners can get a better deal from Harding Co. and leasing agent Petrocasa and invites his neighbors in Summer Hills to join him. Harding, which has a joint agreement with Exxon Mobil in the Barnett Shale, has filed to drill a well just south of Hightower and west of Rufe Snow Drive. Beierschmitt says Petrocasa first offered $1,500 an acre and a 20 percent royalty, and since has come up to $3,000 and 22 percent. But the city has gotten $3,000 and 25 percent, he says, and figures residents should get at least that. A North Richland Hills reader earlier reported receiving the $1,500/20 percent offer from Petrocasa earlier.

Beierschmitt invites residents to call him at 817-281-4142 or Marty Leicht at 817-577-3561. He says he has about 150 homeowners with him so far.