Barnett Shale

Wedgwood associations organize

Wedgwood residents in south Fort Worth are organizing to discuss what to do with lease offers that property owners have been receiving. Several hundred property owners turned out at two meetings last week that were hosted, in turn, by the Wedgwood East Neighborhood Association and then by the Wedgwood Neighborhood Association.

The Wedgwood Neighborhood Association is organizing another meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. Nov. 19 at the Hulen Street Baptist Church, 7100 S. Hulen St. A Fort Worth oil and gas attorney who spoke at the Wedgwood East meeting will give a presentation to the Nov. 19 meeting.

Cora Mosley -- the Wedgwood Neighborhood Association president -- said her group and the Wedgwood East group are discussing banding together. In the meantime, the associations are asking property owners to "wait and see what happens," Mosley said. (The Wedgwood South Neighborhood Association also is interested in joining up.)

Beyond the best financial terms it can get, Mosley said "we're also concerned about the drilling site itself," which the association isn't clear on.  "Residents have expressed concerns about safety and noise," she said.

Jim Rohleder, president of the Wedgwood East association, said he sensed that relatively few property owners in his neighborhood have signed lease offers. The Wedgwood East meeting drew 600-800 attendees, according to the assocations' estimates, while the second meeting drew about 150, Mosley said.

The two associations are still organizing gas committees. Michele Gwin, the Wedgwood Neighborhood Association's vice president, is heading up the neighborhood's gas committee. The Wedgwood East association hasn't formed a committee yet, but will ask for interested people at its next meeting, 6:30 p.m. Nov. 8 at the Unity Church of Fort Worth, 5401 Woodway, said Beverly Myres, vice president and acting treasurer of the Wedgwood East association.

The Wedgwood associations are also discussing the possibility of trying to add the Candleridge associations, which are south of Wedgwood, to any negotiating group. The Candleridge Homeowner Association is in the process of forming a gas drilling committee. It has expressed interest in joining up with the Wedgwood group, Myres said.

Dieter Satz, immediate past president of the Candleridge Homeowner Association, said property owners in his area have received offers from Paloma Resources  ($4,000 per acre bonus, and 25 percent royalty) and Dale Resources, ($5,000 bonus and 25 percent royalty).

"Needless to say, none of this is in synch with the rest of the city," Satz said, referring to the $15,000 bonuses that well-organized associations on Fort Worth's near South Side have negotiated. "So they have some dealing to do."

Residents of other neighborhoods that are considered part of Wedgwood report receiving lease offers. For example: Bellaire Park North (click here for reader comment on this blog, and here for info on the neighborhood association.)

The city of Fort Worth's neighborhood database lists 25 recognized neighborhood associations that cover some part of Wedgwood.

-- Scott

Photos: Wedgwood's J.T. Stevens Elementary School (top right), bird on pond at Candleridge Park (bottom right)

Fort Worth City Council OKs Cobb Park lease

The Fort Worth City Council approved 7-0 with two members absent a gas drilling lease beneath Cobb Park in east Fort Worth. The city will be paid about $1.8 million in a lease bonus and a 26 percent royalty from production by Chesapeake Exploration. A portion of the revenue will be invested in the park. Councilmembers also approved granting an easement on about a half-acre of land in Heritage Park in far north Fort Worth.

-- Anthony Spangler

Drilling for gas at the airport

Chesapeake Energy announced today that it is now starting to sell 30 million cubic feet of natural gas underneath Dallas/Fort Worth Airport from its first 11 wells.

The Oklahoma City-based company has started 33 wells overall, and for the next 50 years plans to produce a total of 300 to 325 wells over the airport's 18,000 acres. Chesapeake envisions reaching its peak in 2011 at D/FW Airport with 250 million cubic feet of natural gas being produced per day.

The company also said it believes that a total of 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas can be produced from under the airport.

This is all big business for the airport, which received a $185 million check as a signing bonus from Chesapeake and will continue to receive a cut of the royalties for the gas that's sold.

-David

Foster Park residents organize

Property owners in Foster Park, a neighborhood in southwest Fort Worth near Westcliff West and Tanglewood, are organizing. The neighborhood has received lease offers from Four Sevens/Chesapeake for $3,000 per-acre bonus and a 25 percent royalty.

Andy Velayos, an engineer and one of the organizers, is asking property owners in the area bounded by Bellaire Drive on the north, Trail Lake Drive on the east, Interstate 20 on the south, and Hulen Street on the west, to contact him at andynshannon@sbcglobal.net.

The neighborhood has spent the last few weeks contacting homeowners, churches and schools in the area to get some sense of who's received offers and signed them. The group has reached out to surrounding associations, such as Westcliff West, to see if they want to join forces. The Foster Park group also is interested in joining up with a neighborhood just to the north that Velayos says has contacted the city and is interested in forming a recognized neighborhood association dubbed Overton Park West.

"I think we've made good progress," he said.

The Chesapeake drill site would be at Pafford and Granbury Road. Velayos said it appears that a good number of property owners have already signed their lease offers with Four Sevens/Chesapeake. "That's not good, but depending on the pattern of the people that didn't sign, we might be able to get (Four Sevens) to negotiate with us."

Here's a link to the Foster Park gas lease site.

-- Scott

Chesapeake reportedly raises Westcliff West bonus

A homeowner in Westcliff West reported receiving a new lease offer from Chesapeake Energy offering a bonus of $9,000 per acre and 22 percent royalty. The company's previous offer was $3,000 an acre and 25 percent royalty. The homeowner said two others on Hill Top Road received the same new offer.

-- Jim

Lawyer seeks Glencrest Resources lease signers

Fort Worth lawyer John Hart placed an ad in Sunday's Star-Telegram seeking landowners who signed leases with Glencrest Resources, which says it has signed thousands of mineral rights leases in Tarrant County. [Click here to read the background.]Download glencrest.doc

Hart on Monday said none of those landowners has been paid a promised signing bonus and is preparing to go to court to get the leases rescinded. He said he has been contacted by a number of homeowners unhappy with Glencrest, organized by Fort Worth developer Leonard Briscoe Sr. The Star-Telegram has previously reported Briscoe's problems raising the money he needs to make good on the bonuses, which offered a minimum bonus of $750 per residential lot and a 25 percent royalty. Those terms were among the best reported when Glencrest launched its efforts about a year ago, but have been eclipsed recently as competition for remaining leases has escalated. Phone calls to Glencrest's office went unanswered Monday. A recording at Briscoe's personal phone said the company is establishing a call center and asks property owners to be patient.

-- Jim

Best of Blogging the Barnett Shale

Where to start? There's tons of competition for this week's edition of...Best of the Blogging the Barnett Shale.

Western suspends leasing in Ridglea, Ridgmar, citing lack of drill site and neighborhood opposition.

Lease offers explode on Fort Worth's South Side

Dalworthington Gardens strikes rich area agreement, negotiates deal residents can sign

New royalty calculator on Fort Worth League of Neighborhoods site.

And in the rapidly expanding category of new lease offers:

Mansfield/Walnut Creek residents organize

Residents near Mansfield's historic downtown see offers

Fort Worth's Wedgwood sees offers.

-- Scott

Arlington's Briarwood Estates pushes for better terms

Briarwood Estates in central Arlington, which originally was offered leases carrying a $1,200 per acre bonus, has negotiated that up to $4,00 and a 23 percent royalty in talks with Cheaha Land Services and Carrizo Oil, which has the contract to drill on University of Texas-Arlington property. Talks are continuing.

-- Jim

Waterway Park in Arlington gets $6,000/acre and 25%

The Waterway Park Neighborhood Association has signed a lease with Chesapeake Energy for its nearly 45 acres of common property at terms of $6,000 per acre and a 25 percent royalty. Residents in the neighborhood in far northwest Arlington who have not signed a lease, amounting to about half the households, can also sign at those terms. The company's original offer in the spring was $5,500 and 24 percent. Additionally, a no-drill zone around the neighborhood is expanded, according to information posted by the association.

-- Jim Fuquay

Southwest Arlington meeting draws 300+

Gordon Rainey handed out more than 1,600 fliers announcing a meeting he organized to discuss gas leasing in far southwest Arlington, and at least 300 residents turned out to hear more Thursday night at S.J. Stovall Park. Rainey said Friday he collected 266 names and e-mail addresses at the meeting and had another 40 e-mails on his computer (rgg1723@att.net). He and neighbor Bill Geiger told a receptive crowd that the $2,000 per acre bonus and 22 percent royalty being offered by Caffey Group on behalf of Wichita Falls-based Hollis R. Sullivan Inc. was simply too low. Their solution: Stop signing leases until homeowners can get organized and negotiate better terms. The problem: None of the households in an area bounded by Sublett, Calendar, Eden/Curry roads and U.S. 287 are in formal neighborhood associations, so Rainey knows he's basically starting from scratch. "If everybody at the meeting goes out and talks to five or 10 people," he says, homeowners stand a chance of presenting a united front.

-- Jim