leasing for drilling

[internationlman]

I recently had a natural gas company call me about leasing part of my ground for drilling. What I'm curious about is how did they come up with my name. Has anybody had experience with this type of situtation. Can this mess up ground water in area. Your replies would be appreciated.

 

[Egon]

Land titles: With the proper access someone knows everything about everybody.
The water well situation is a moot question. If the drilling and completion rigs all follow proper procedure there should be no problems unless there are future corrosion problems or a cement job fails. I do know of some old well sites where the ground water has been contaminated but in general this is not the case.

Egon

 

[Steven]

Maybe they will find something and you will have to up the lease cost in your favor of course. just think of all the toys you can buy with lease money. make sure you understand what you are signing, wouldn't want you to sign away your rights to something, they are on your land after all. they must have a hunch about something or they wouldn't waste their time.

 

[ScottAR]

All landowners names are public records. My county prints a plat every few years that has every piece of land in the county drawn out. Very helpful when shopping for property.

 

[internationlman]

Yes I assume that they fill there is natural gas in the area or they would not be interested in leasing. These big companys Don't usely throw money away. I was just wandeing how they determined my property could be it. I know there are gas wells
within miles of my land as the crow flies. But my biggest concern is we are planning on building on are property in the near future we do not want it destroyed but the money could come in handy.

 

[TresCrows]

I used to work for a large international oil company. I was (and am) a Geologist. There are people working for them called "landmen" whose job it is to find the owners of land parcels, more specifically the owners of the mineral rights, this is always legally recorded and available for the public.
Yes, drilling can impact groundwater but given the EPA restrictions now and the great efforts these companies go through to reduce environmental impact I doubt your ground water will be impacted at all--not at all. You might have to deal with a drilling program but using modern directional methods they can drill several holes from one location or set up the rig in one location and drill to another.
Yes, if they are seeking a lease they have either an Exploration Prospect or a Stepout Prospect (is there a nearby field?) and thus they want your lease. Drilling is expensive and they do not want to drill until they and partners have the majority of the leases locked in or otherwise another company can come in and pick up leases on "their discovery". J

 

[dmccarty]

InternationlMan,

Try searching TBN, most likely in this Rural section, for a
similar conversation. Seems like there was a fairly long
discussion in the last year about the pro/cons of oil/gas
drilling. I think Muhammad may have been in the conversation
which suprised the me since they are in NY and I had never
heard of drilling in NY state.

Hopefully I'm not misremembering things.....
Dan McCarty

 

[internationlman]

I met with "landman" yesterday they are trying to do eactly what you said about leasing all ground in specific drilling area.Told me that bassed on sysmelogical data they fill there is gas in area. In answer to your question about gas fields in area he told me that the other gas fields in area where considered shallow sandstone wells aproxametly 4000 to 5000 feet. These wells they are proposing to drill are 10000 feet plus. Landman also told me that they had a big gas field in Steuben and Chemug counties in New York. Any more thougts on this type of drilling. I don't want to destroy my land.

 

[Egon]

The depth should not make any difference other than in drilling time and a taller rig to reduce trip out time.

What you have to ask is if there will be any ancilliary equipment such as scrubbers, line heaters, chemical injection, dehy's or compression at the well site after completion. The flowline route and wellsite access road location may also be of interest.

The landman will in all likely hood claim ignorance of all these questions and it's only after the flow test other things start to happen.

Egon

 

[TresCrows]

Yeah, there could be ancillary equipment at the well site if it is completed as a well. Are they actually going to drill from your property or do they just want the lease. Wells are spaced 60 acres, 320 acres, 640 acres depending on depth and other factors etc. How many acres you got there anyway? No, the "Landman" probably cannot answer all your questions, that is not his area of expertise, many of these guys are lawyers but rarely are they drilling engineers or geologist. Just because you give them a lease does not mean there will be a well on your property. They will, after getting most of the leases, arrive at a geologically sound drilling site probably after imput (yelling, bitching, irrational screaming) from locals and landowners. A field as you describe could be completed with as few as two or three surface well sites, the remaining wells directionaly drilled from those sites. I suggest you hire a lawyer to look into the going lease rates, royalties, and "what is common practice to be done for environmental impact" for your area. Yes, in the old days fields were ugly and messy but nowadays it is possible to make them very low impact. Course the actual drilling processes are going to be temporarily messy, noisy and aggravating. This situation could be financially rewarding. Good luck. J