Barnett Shale

New face Titan Operating is looking titanic

For a new company, Titan Operating is up and running like a veteran. In the past month it has won the endorsement of big neighborhood groups in Colleyville and North Arlington, and this week announced the financial backing of Riverstone Holdings, a $15 billion private equity firm with sizable energy holdings. Chalk up the fast start to Titan's founders, all experienced Barnett Shale producers. Titan Chairman Hollis Sullivan is also president of Wichita Falls-based Hollis R. Sullivan Inc., which in July was named as one of the sellers of $800 million worth of producing properties and leases in the Barnett Shale to XTO Energy. Other Titan co-founders are Christopher Hammack, former vice president of drilling and completions for Range Resources, and Mark Schumacher, who headed EnCana Oil & Gas USA’s Barnett Shale operations. Riverstone did not disclose the amount of its investment in Titan, but said it “made a significant capital commitment to Titan,” which it said will focus “on acquisitions and development in the Barnett Shale.”

Click here for the Star-Telegram's report on the transaction: Download titan_resources.doc

-- Jim Fuquay

New group forms in Grapevine

A new neighborhood gas group -- and another crazy acronym -- has emerged in Grapevine, by the name of East of Pool Road Owners Group.

That's EPROG, for those of you still working on the letters.

The group, which formed during the first week in March, consists of 212 members and covers about 400 acres. It's website is easy enough, www.pooleast.com.

And its boundaries, all within the city of Grapevine, are:

• Pool Road on the west
• Hall Johnson Road on the south
• High Meadow on the north
• High Countryside Drive on the east

The group hasn't received any offers yet, and only some of the individual homeowners have received any, said Jim Heckman, the group's leader.

But land companies representing XTO Energy and Chesapeake Energy have both expressed interest, Heckman said.

The group is wedged between two more prominent groups: DFW West Homeowners, which agreed in April to a deal with XTO for an per-acre bonus of $18,500 and a 25 percent royalty; and Pool Road Coalition, which recently merged with the Colleyville Area Mineral Rights Association, and is considering competing offers from XTO and Chesapeake. The highest offer is from XTO for a per-acre bonus of $18,500.

--David Wethe

Two large groups in Colleyville merge

The two largest property owners groups in Colleyville agreed last night to merge.

The combination of the Colleyville Area Mineral Rights Association (CAMRA) and the Pool Road Coalition now makes for a group of about 2,000 acres and about 1,800 property owners.

The groups can be reached by about nine different wells from various drilling companies, said Grady Walker, the leader of the CAMRA group.

Both groups are mulling similar offers from XTO Energy and Chesapeake Energy. The XTO offer includes a per-acre bonus of $18,500, while Chesapeake's bonus offer is for $17,000 an acre.

Michael Muhm, the spokesman for the Pool Road Coalition, has said earlier he wanted his group to have an agreement to recommend to property owners by the end of May.

The groups merged so they could provide more one-stop shopping for a drilling company. The larger the land mass, the easier it is for a drilling company to sign a lease, group leaders argue. And the easier it is for the drilling the company, the more valuable the group becomes, Walker said. That can lead to stronger lease terms for the property owners, he said.

To see more of what we've said on these two groups, click here:

• CAMRA
• Pool Road Coalition

--David Wethe

(Photo: Memorial Day in Colleyville)

XTO meets with CAMRA and others in NE Tarrant

The Colleyville Area Mineral Rights Association held its long-awaited meeting earlier this week with officials from XTO Energy and its land company, Colt Exploration.

Grady Walker described the meeting as more informational than that of a sales pitch. XTO is currently sitting with the highest offer to many northeast Tarrant County neighborhoods, with an $18,500 bonus offer, a 25 percent royalty and a three-year primary and two-year secondary term. Dale Resources, on behalf of Chesapeake Energy, had previously made an offer for $17,000 an acre, with all of the other terms being the same as XTO's offer.

Walker's group invited representatives from about six of the largest neighborhood groups to XTO's meeting. They included:

• Continental Park Estates, in Southlake
• Pool Road Coalition, in Colleyville
• Hidden Lakes, in Keller
• D/FW West, in Grapevine and Euless
• Southlake Park Oil and Gas Group
• North Keller Neighbors Together, in Keller, Westlake and Southlake
• White Chapel Corridor, in Southlake

There were about 60 people at the meeting, a little more than the number of people who showed up a couple weeks earlier to Dale's presentation at the Southlake Hilton Hotel.

"Now comes the hard part," Walker wrote in a release issued today. "We need to work with these companies to get behind the presentations, lofty words and 'contract examples' to see what specifically they are willing to offer CAMRA members in terms of financial and other contractual commitments."

Walker said after the two-hour meeting, that XTO and Chesapeake are now both considered "excellent companies." He said he now expects "a lot of activity over the next several weeks."

--David Wethe

Keller neighborhood wants in on Colleyville's action

As the competition between drilling companies invades the quiet burbs of Northeast Tarrant County, there are some in that area hoping to get a piece of the hot action.

A new group, known simply as the Hidden Lakes Gas Committee, has formed to represent the interests of 1,735 homeowners in the Hidden Lakes subdivision of Keller. Hidden Lakes is a new community of about 10 villages all built around the Sky Creek Ranch Golf Course.

Over the weekend, several homeowners reported getting a new offer from Colt Exploration, representing XTO Energy, for a per-acre bonus of $10,000 and royalties of 25 percent, said Deb Gatzke, secretary of the Hidden Lakes Gas Committee.

According to the group's website, it's the same offer that Sky Creek Ranch Golf course signed in late March. It was a 4-year deal. "XTO's drillsite is 14.3 acres west of Davis, just across from where Precinct Line meets Davis," according to the site.

The $10,000 bonus is higher than XTO's earlier offer of $6,500 an acre to Hidden Lakes residents, but it's still not at the $18,500 level that was offered last week to the CAMRA, Pool Road Coalition and West Colleyville Gas groups in nearby Colleyville.

Hidden Lakes bumps up to CAMRA's western edge. Gatzke, who attended a CAMRA leadership meeting last night, said she would like to get her group in with CAMRA but may not be able to do that right now.

"I doubt they're gonna grow far enough west to include us," she said.

The boundaries of Hidden Lakes are roughly Shady Grove Road on the south, Keller Smithfield Road on the west, 1709 on the north and Davis Boulevard on the east.

Here's a link to the group's website.

If you want to join the Hidden Lakes group, you can send an e-mail to gaslease@hlhoa.com.

--David Wethe

(Archive photo: Sky Creek Ranch Golf Course)

Potential bidding war spreads to Southlake

In addition to parts of Colleyville, XTO Energy has apparently spread its counter offer to areas of Southlake.

The White Chapel Corridor reports that it had a conversation yesterday with a high-ranking XTO official, who said it wants to be in the game.

"XTO has repeatedly made it clear that they will not be out bid," Trenton Stillwell said in an e-mail that went out to White Chapel members Thursday.

But Stillwell, who is one of the leaders of the White Chapel Corridor, added something else interesting about the bonus numbers:

"We have not and will not be responding to the bonuses until we have the lease language our members would favor.  Primarily we want the royalty clause to be clear and easy to read so that all of our members can read and reasonably discern what there royalty payment will be.  We want to know that our minerals will be developed in the shortest amount of time with the least possible impact and we want common case law references included in our lease."

As a result, XTO did not make the same verbal offer of $18,500 that it made to the nearby CAMRA and Pool Road Coalition groups in Colleyville.

Here's what we said yesterday about the Colleyville Area Mineral Rights Association and the Pool Road Coalition yesterday.

--David Wethe

(Archive photo: Bicentennial Park)

Bidding war in Colleyville?

It seems we've now got the makings of a bidding war cranking up in parts of Colleyville and perhaps elsewhere in Northeast Tarrant County.

The benefactor so far is the Colleyville Area Mineral Rights Association (web site), with perhaps others to come.

On Wednesday afternoon, two high-ranking officials from XTO Energy and its leasing agent Colt Exploration made a verbal offer of an $18,500-per-acre bonus that would serve as a "place holder" to give the Fort Worth-based drilling company and its land company more time to come back next week with a more serious offer, said Grady Walker, spokesman for the CAMRA.

Walker said he wouldn't call it a bidding war yet, but it could head that way.

"They said, 'Understand this is our backyard, we will be and want to be a serious player,'" Walker said. XTO and Colt officials plan to meet with leaders of CAMRA sometime next week to negotiate in serious detail a new lease offer.

Walker said he received "a very clear message" XTO: "We're not interested in single pieces of property. We want all of CAMRA."

Up next: Colt officials plan to meet with the Pool Road Coalition (web site). Michael Muhm, spokesman for that group, said he's expecting a similar offer to be made to his group this evening. The last offer from XTO to the Pool Road group is $12,500, Muhm said.

The latest offer from XTO came less than 24 hours after Dale Resources made a huge pitch to grab about 5,000 acres of natural gas rights in most of Colleyville, Southlake and parts of North Richland Hills and Keller. That offer included a $17,000-per-acre bonus. To read more about that, click here.

Update, 5:35 p.m.: As expected, the Pool Road Coalition put out a press release in the last 15 minutes saying that it has received the same offer from Colt that CAMRA received: a bonus of $18,500 per acre.

The Pool Road folks stress that they are not endorsing either offer right now, but want to closely study both of them.

Keep checking back with us as we learn more about the XTO offer spreading through other neighborhoods.

--David Wethe

Dale goes after leases in NE Tarrant County

  Here's the full story from S-T staffer David Wethe on Dale Resources' pitch to neighborhood groups in Colleyville, Southlake, North Richland Hills, and Keller for leases. The offer could apply broadly to people in Colleyville and Southlake. Don't have a lease offer from Dale? Read this story to find out more on what you can do to find out if you're eligible.

Here's S-T staffer Adrienne Nettles' story from earlier this week on the Southlake City Council's consideration of changes that would allow drilling closer to homes.

Pictured is a map of drill sites that Dale Resources says Chesapeake has secured in the affected Northeast Tarrant County area. Dale reps handed the map out to neighborhood leaders at a meeting Tuesday night.

-- Scott Nishimura

Dale makes broad pitch for $17,000 in NE Tarrant

Dale Resources made an unusual and far-flung pitch last night to lease mineral rights for about 5,000 acres in Northeast Tarrant County.

The offer is for a bonus of $17,000 an acre and a 25 percent royalty. The lease term is for three years and an option for a two-year renewal.

The offer was made to a packed room full of about 40 community leaders from Colleyville, Southlake, and parts of North Richland Hills and Keller. As neighborhood group leaders and HOA presidents spilled out of the small conference room at the Southlake Hilton after the meeting, at least one expressed intrigue and possible interest in the offer.

Michael Muhm, leader of the Pool Road Coalition, called the offer "very interesting." He said XTO Energy has a competing offer out to property owners in his group's area for a bonus of roughly $12,500 an acre. But he said his group is looking at not only the best dollar amount but who would also be the best drilling company for property owners to partner with, and he said Chesapeake is looking strong.

Dale has also proposed 11 signing dates throughout the month of May in Colleyville.

Dale officials said the offer is good for anyone living in a large swath of northeast Tarrant, mainly southwest of 114. But the land company also did say that if there was not enough people that started signing, the offer could go down. A deadline date was not given for how long the offer would be good for.

Among the affected areas are the upscale, 1,100-acre Timarron community in Southlake, the Pool Road Coalition and the Colleyville Area Mineral Rights Association.

Stay tuned to this space for more updates, and to the S-T print edition Thursday for a full story. We're trying to get a handle on who was in the room Tuesday night, and how broad the area is that we're talking about.

If you were in the room and you have a perspective, we'd love to hear it. Just drop us an email at dwethe@star-telegram.com or call us!

-- David Wethe

(Photo: Southlake trolley)

New Colleyville group emerges

A group of seven homeowners associations,a church and about 50 individual homeowners all in Colleyville, have banded together to try and lease their mineral rights.

They're calling their group the Colleyville Area Mineral Rights Association.  It includes:

• Oak Brook Hills
• Monticello
• Pebble Hill
• Shalimar
• Warwick Park
• Western Trails
• Williamsburg Estates (See our previous blog post)
• Crown of Life Lutheran Church

Grady Walker, a spokesperson for CAMRA, said the group includes about 1,000 acres, some of which spill over into Southlake as well. Dale Resources and Petrocasa Energy have a total about six well sites that would touch the homes within CAMRA, Walker said.

The group's rough boundaries go from Continental Boulevard on the north to Tinker Road on the south, and the intersection of Highway 26 at John McCain Road on the east to Davis Boulevard in Keller in the west. The boundaries take in the Williamsburg Estates neighborhoods along John McCain that we've previously blogged on.

Some individual homeowners signed offers last year, Walker said, but he's hoping to add to the group's size. There are about three other homeowners associations that could join the group, he said.

-- David Wethe

(Photo: School play at Crown of Life)