Barnett Shale

NETGLO neighborhoods back Chesapeake lease

Residents of neighborhoods in northeast Tarrant County are moving toward executing a final Barnett Shale natural gas leasing agreement with Chesapeake Energy after having overwhelmingly approved the proposed terms in a Saturday election. Nearly 95 percent of the 1,591 households voting cast ballots in favor of the leasing deal, said Doug Inscho of Keller, chairman of the research team for the Northeast Tarrant Gas Leasing Organization (NETGLO). It comprises about 40 neighborhoods in Keller, North Richland Hills and a small portion of Colleyville. The lease proposal calls for a bonus of $5,250 per acre for a three-year primary term, with a $2,500 bonus for an optional second two-year term. The royalty rate would be 25 percent.

Inscho said he believes the proposal received lopsided approval because “people looked at the terms that were offered and it certainly is better than the current market rate...what companies are offering just going door to door.” Some recent offers have been for bonuses of only about $1,000 to $2,000 an acre and a royalty rate of only 20 percent. Inscho said he believes that northeast Tarrant residents also backed the lease proposal because they “were interested in moving on...they’ve been dealing with this, waiting and waiting and waiting, for almost a couple of years.” The next step, Inscho said, will be to meet with Chesapeake officials and see what follow-up actions are needed to move toward getting leases with individual property owners executed.

-- Jack Z. Smith

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

Northeast Tarrant Gas Leasing Organization moves ahead

A new group representing property owners in North Richland Hills and south Keller is up an running as Northeast Tarrant Gas Leasing Organization, or NETGLO. Organizers say NETGLO has a goal of 2,400 acres. The group's rough boundaries are Rufe Snow Drive on the west, to Davis Boulevard on the east, to Shady Grove Road on the north to Bursey Road on the south, although neighborhoods outside that area are already on board. For more information, visit the group's Web site at www.netglo.org.

-- Jim Fuquay