February 12, 2010
Everyone who signed the original LLAMA agreement should have received either via email or US Mail a copy of the LLAMA extension agreement. At this point the vast majority of you have completed the agreements and sent them in. If you have not yet completed your agreement but intend to please do so as soon as possible and fax, email or mail it to HH&K.
LLAMA
has been very busy on our behalf the past couple of weeks and an email
will be sent out to those who signed the LLAMA agreement in the next
day or so.
January 26, 2010
A meeting was held tonight for all Vestal Coalition members. An email will be sent out with a summary of tonight's meeting within the next day or so. In addition, members without email access will receive information via First Class mail. Members completing forms for the Vestal Coalition can send them directly to Hinman, Howard & Kattell, LLP via scan and email, fax or regular mail (see below). We are asking that all forms be completed and returned by Monday, February 1st. Any questions can be directed to your steering committee at vestalcoalition@coalitionconnection.com.
Hinman, Howard & Kattel, LLP
700 Security Mutual Building
PO Box 5250
Binghamton, NY 13902-5250
Attention: Susan Johns
Phone: (607) 231-6759
Fax: (607) 723-6605
The following is a response from County Executive Barbara Fiala in regards to emails she has received supporting her stance on gas drilling:
I wanted to take a moment to
thank you for your recent words of encouragement as well as your input
regarding potential drilling in the Marcellus Shale in New York State.
I was absolutely overwhelmed with emails (more than 450) and therefore, I
apologize, I could not respond to every single one with a personal message.
Your support for this industry is loud and clear and I will continue to
do my best to make sure your voice, and the voice of what I believe to be a
majority of people in our community, is heard in Albany and beyond. I share your love of the land
and your support for our area economy. I too, do not want anything to
happen to our land, our water or our landscape in general. That is why I
have pushed for strong regulation of the natural gas industry. However, I
do not support delay for delay's sake. We must move forward and put
strong requirements in place for the industry to meet and we must have
steadfast oversight and enforcement. I encourage all of you to
continue to have your voices heard. Our state and federal leaders need to
hear from you! Thank you again for taking the
time to write to me. We will continue to fight for our right to tap into an
important natural resource, diversify our economy and grow new jobs! Thank you! Barbara J. Fiala
January 9, 2010
An email update was sent out to all members of the Vestal Coalition
today. If you are a member and did not receive the email please contact us.
December 18, 2009
An update was sent out today via email to our members. If you did not receive the update please contact us at Vestalcestalcoalition@coalitionconnection.com.
December 3, 2009
The
Vestal Steering Committee along with Robert H. Wedlake of HH&K and
LLAMA HDT gave an update to all of our members on Tuesday, December 1,
2009. If you were unable to attend the meeting we are happy to email
you a brief summary. Please contact us at vestalcoalition@coalitionconnection.com.
At
the meeting one of our members encouraged everyone to contact our
elected officials regarding the end of the public comment period for
the dSGEIS and to let our government know that we are in favor of
moving forward with environmentally safe drilling. While it is
important to get let Commissioner Grannis know this it is also
important to let our Congressman, Assmeblywomen and Governor know that
we are for moving forward with natural gas drilling in New York State.
You can find contact information as well as two sample letters on our One Voice page.
November 21, 2009
The Steering Committee will be sending an update to our members who completed the LLAMA paperwork this weekend.
We have had several members inquiring about the potential issues with their mortgages should they sign a gas lease. Our attorney, Robert Wedlake and his staff have completed significant research on this issue and have composed the following letter to our coalition:
Many landowners are
concerned as a result of the recent article in the Press & Sun Bulletin
relative to the Visions Federal Credit Union possibly requiring a landowner to
payoff the landowner's mortgage as a result of signing an oil and gas lease.
There are some
Laws that are relevant to these issues. Specifically,
there is a Federal Statute that prohibits a lender who holds a mortgage on
residential property from exercising the "due on sale clause" of the
mortgage when the landowner creates a lien or other encumbrance on the
residential property which does not relate to a transfer of the right of
occupancy of the residential property. This statute would prohibit a
lender from requiring a residential landowner to pay off the landowner's mortgage
solely because the landowner signed an oil and gas lease. Therefore, this
statute will protect a residential landowner who signs an oil and gas
lease. However, if the
residential landowner has a well drilled upon the landowner's property,
then other issues arise. Most mortgages prohibit hazardous
substances from being brought on to the landowner's property and it is
likely that some of the drilling or fracing chemicals could be considered to be
hazardous substances. Therefore, if a well is actually drilled on the
landowner's property, there is a potential issue that a lender may invoke this
provision. However, it
is likely that a gas company, before drilling a well, will attempt to
obtain from the landowner's mortgage holder a non-disturbance agreement.
Although a lender cannot be forced to sign a non-disturbance
agreement, it is expected that many lenders will be willing to sign a
non-disturbance agreement in exchange for the gas company agreeing to pay to
the lender the royalty payments if the landowner ever defaults on the
landowner's mortgage. Additionally, it is somewhat unlikely that a gas
company would drill a well on property where the lender refuses to
execute a non-disturbance agreement; a gas company would be reluctant to
invest millions of dollars in drilling a well in the situation where the gas
company could be forced off the property by the lender in the case of a
mortgage foreclosure. Therefore, from a practical standpoint, it is
likely that the issues pertaining to a lender calling the mortgage will be
addressed long before the well is actually drilled. The picture in
New York State is less clear relative to non-residential property.
The above referenced statute only protects residential property.
Therefore, an owner of non-residential property does run the risk
of a lender taking the position that the lender is entitled to be paid in
full. However, if a lender were to take a landowner to court, it is not
clear that a Judge would decide in favor of a lender in the
case where the property owner is current on the outstanding mortgage. It
is possible that the Judge could conclude that the act of signing a lease does
not jeopardize the lender's collateral enough to entitle the lender to call the
mortgage. Additionally, if a well is actually going to be located on the
non-residential property, the same considerations will be applicable as
outlined above for sighting a well on residential property - the gas company is
not likely to actually locate a well on the non-residential property unless the
lender is willing to cooperate or unless the landowner can pay off the balance
of the mortgage. Rob Wedlake
November 6, 2009:
An email update went out yesterday from the Steering Committee to those who signed the LLAMA deal. If you signed LLAMA paperwork and did not receive the email please let us know.
The Vestal Coalition has been receiving some negative comments from another coalition and and their attorney about our relationship with LLAMA HDT and our lease. Please be certain that the Steering Committee would not have recommended either the lease or the LLAMA option to the members if we were not confident that it was in the best interest of our community.
Below is am email to the Steering Committee from our attorney, Rob Wedlake regarding this:
Several of you have forwarded to me the e-mail of October 23rd from Tim Stank which (I believe) was addressed to the members of the Binghamton-Conklin Coalition. It would appear that Mr. Stank's e-mail contains within it a message from Attorney Scott R. Kurkoski whom, as most of you know is a partner with Levene, Gouldin & Thompson, the firm that represents the Binghamton-Conklin Coalition.
Several of you have expressed concerns with respect to Mr. Kurkoski's critique of the Llama deal and the Llama Lease. Insofar as it would appear that Mr. Stank's e-mail has been disseminated on the internet beyond the members of the Binghamton-Conklin Coalition is probably appropriate for us to respond to Mr. Kurkoski's critique. Accordingly, I would respond as follows:
Mr. Kurkoski's e-mail starts off by responding to a Binghamton-Conklin member's concerns about Compulsory Integration. Mr. Kurkoski states: "we won't see any drilling in our area until next year". While it is true that we may not see widespread drilling in our area until next year I assume Mr. Kurkoski is aware that Mega Energy drilled a well in June on Echo Road and I do not know if Mr. Kurkoski is aware that Inflections (as the Successor to Mega Energy) has just started drilling the Eaton well in the Town of Owego in Tioga County. Furthermore, of course, I believe that it is widely known that Nornew continues to drill wells on a regular basis in Chenango County and Madison County.
Additionally, I believe many of you are aware that some of our Vestal Coalition members were put through Compulsory Integration with the Mega Energy well on Echo Road. Therefore, several landowners in Broome County have already been affected by Compulsory Integration and, in my opinion, a landowner does have to consider Compulsory Integration as a possibility in the landowner's decision relative to oil and gas leasing matters.
Mr.
Kurkoski goes on to state that the Llama Lease does not have a drilling
commitment "like other leases". Mr. Kurkoski is correct that
the Llama Lease does not contain any drilling commitment. However, up to
this point in time, very few (if any) executed leases contain a drilling
commitment. The "XTO" deal signed by the Deposit group in May
of 2008 clearly does not contain any drilling commitment. Furthermore,
although the Friendsville Group Lease appears to have a drilling commitment, a
careful examination of the Lease reveals that there is no drilling commitment
in the Friendsville Group Lease. Specifically, even though Section 5(b)
of the Friendsville Group calls for the completion of a initial horizontal well
within a certain timeframe and even though that Section contemplates the
drilling of additional wells, the drilling commitment is eliminated by the last
sentence of Section 5(c) which reads as follows: "Lessee
shall have no liability or obligation, and Lessor has no rights, arising from
any failure by Lessee to drill Wells in accordance with the provisions of
Section 5(b) and 5(c)".
Mr. Kurkoski's e-mail goes on to invite the reader to compare the Llama Lease with the Friendsville Group Lease and he terms the Friendsville Group Lease as "superior" he also states that he see "no reason why people in your area would sign a sub par lease since your geology is nearly the same or better than Friendsville's".
I have publicly stated that the Friendsville Group is to be commended for their Lease. There is no question that the Friendsville Group Lease contains alot of detail and many provisions that are not customarily found in an oil and gas lease. However, I submit that Mr. Kurkoski's categorization of the Friendsville Lease as "superior" is relative. That is, as we have discussed at our Steering Committee meetings, the provisions that a Coalition, Landowner or Steering Committee include in a lease depend to a degree on the desire of the landowner or coalition to obtain a lease sooner rather than later and the terms and conditions can also reflect the amount of money that a gas company is willing to pay to a landowner for the landowner's oil and gas rights. Concededly, the Friendsville Group Lease is most likely "superior" from the Sierra Club's perspective. However, not all landowners share the viewpoints and beliefs of the Sierra Club. In stating this, I am not insinuating that the Sierra Club is a bad organization I am just pointing out that some landowners have different perspectives and different beliefs with respect to many of the issues that Mr. Kurkoski is alluding to.
For
instance, many landowners feel that the regulations (including the
new environmental impact statement) of the DEC together with the kind of
provisions that are in the Llama Lease are more than sufficient to
reasonably protect the landowner while allowing the landowner to obtain a
return on the landowner's mineral rights. You will further recall that
the Steering Committee has debated these issues and has concluded that the
Llama Lease is a reasonable compromise between the completing views and gives
the landowner reasonable protection with what we hope will be good prospects
for obtaining a lucrative lease deal, at this point in time with the moratorium
still in place.
Mr.
Kurkoski goes on in his e-mail to touch on a few "problems" that
he sees with the Llama Lease and I would respond to his observations as
follows:
1. Royalty:
Mr. Kurkoski observes that the Llama Lease provides that landowners'
proportional share of production taxes will be deducted from the landowners'
royalty while the same is not true for the Friendsville Group Lease.
First of all, New York State currently does not have any production tax. It is true that there has been a Bill introduced in the State Assembly to assess production taxes but at this point there is no existing production tax. Secondly, with respect to his reference to the Friendsville Group Lease I know exactly what Mr. Kurkoski is referring to. He is referring to the definitional section at the end of the Friendsville Fortuna Lease which provides that there shall not be a deduction for production taxes. However, Mr. Kurkoski has either forgotten or has overlooked Section 18(d)(v) which states:
"Lessee will reimburse Lessor for any and all production taxes imposed upon or which Lessor is required to pay, if and whenever levied, over and above those taxes levied on Lessor's interest in the oil and gas produced and for which Lessor receives a Royalty".
In other words, this section provides that Fortuna is not going to pay for the landowners' production taxes and there is a contradiction in the Friendsville Fortuna Lease which could very well result in the landowner having to absorb landowner's share of production taxes in the future. Additionally, I cannot recall ever seeing any recorded Lease which obligates the Gas Company to pay the landowner's share of production taxes. However, this is not to say that the Binghamton-Conklin Coalition may not be successful in having a Gas Company agree to this kind of provision: I am simply pointing out that, up to this point in time, it is the landowner who pays the landowner's share of production taxes.
Mr. Kurkoski then observes that the Llama Lease is freely assignable: he is absolutely correct. Mr. Kurkoski indicates that the assignability issue could result in the landowner being unhappy with the Company eventually owning the Lease. Please recall that we considered this issue and felt the fact that our Lease cannot be changed and the fact that hindering the assignability would decrease the marketability of our Lease outweighed the positive attribute of prohibiting any assignment. Once again, this issue again relates to a landowner's judgment: if the landowner wants to increase his or her chances of obtaining a lease it makes prefect sense for the landowner to allow assignment. Additionally, from my experience, very few existing leases prohibit assignment and I know for a fact that many Gas Companies will not accept a deal if they are prohibited from assigning the Lease.
Mr. Kurkoski then states that the Llama Lease has poor reclamation and pipeline provisions. Once again, this is a matter of perspective, the Llama Lease does contain recalmation language and the DEC also has regulations relative to reclamation. Furthermore, the Llama Lease prohibits any pipelines other than gathering lines associated with the well on the landowner's property or on a unit in which the landowner's property is included. It is true that the Llama Lease does not mandate all the various details as are set forth in the Friendsville Fortuna Group Lease but the Llama Lease contains language obligating the Lessee to conduct all operations in such a manner as to minimize, control and contain any soil erosion and all surface reclamation must be done in a manner to restore the leased premises to as close to its original contours and topsoil constitution as practical.
Mr. Kukoski also comments with respect to the Llama Lease lacking "leased premises rules". I am not sure what he is referring to: perhaps he is referring to the kind of detail that is set forth in the Friendsville Fortuna Group Lease in Section 14 ("leased premises rules"). If you examine the Fortuna Friendsville Group Lease you will see that this Section does have detail with respect to the Lessee removing any artifacts, shrubs, rocks or the like and also prohibits the Lessee from allowing any dogs to run free on the leased premises etc. Once again, this is a matter of perspective: some people may feel that it is very necessary to have this kind of language in a lease but many people do not see this kind of language being necessary in an Oil and Gas Lease and many people view the inclusion of this language as a potential obstacle to obtaining a lucrative lease sometime in the foreseeable future.
Mr. Kurkoski's comments relative to "no gas measurement provision", "no minimum royalty" and "no offset provision" are apparently references to various provisions in the Fortuna Friendsville Group Lease and in making comparisons with the Llama Lease with the Fortuna Friendsville Group Lease it is imperative to remember that there has not been any moratorium in Pennsylvania, and that Susquehanna County has a number of highly producing gas wells and that in general, competition between gas companies has been dramatically more in Pennsylvania than in New York. In other words, for right now it is a lot easier for Coalitions to extract concessions in Pennsylvania than it is for us in New York State.
Mr. Kurkoski also notes that the Llama Lease only provides for reimbursement of attorney's fees on royalty claims and not on other claims: that is correct but I would point out that the Llama Lease provides that the landowner can take other disputes to arbitration so as to avoid costly litigation. Furthermore, in many instances the inclusion of attorney's fees reimbursement language will result in the "prevailing party" being reimbursed attorney's fees; in other words, the inclusion of an attorney's fees clause could result in the landowner having to pay the gas company's attorney's fees in a case where the gas company prevails.
Mr. Kurkoski also observes that the Llama Lease does not prohibit compressors. He is absolutely correct. However, you will recall that any surface activity is prohibited within 500 feet of any existing structure, building, pond, lake or water supply. A compressor is a surface activity and so it would be absolutely prohibited within that 500 foot buffer zone. Furthermore, you will recall that the Llama Lease provides that any other surface activity must be mutually agreed upon pursuant to a written Surface Use Agreement and that if the landowner and the gas company cannot agree that arbitration will insue. Although arbitration does not guarantee the exclusion of a compressor station it is not unreasonable to conclude that arbitrators would take into consideration the location of residences with respect to the compressor station location issue.
In conclusion, in my opinion the difference between the Vestal Coalition
Steering Committee and the Binghamton-Conklin Steering Committee is simply a
matter of judgment. You can emphasis to our members that it is the
judgment of the Vestal Steering Committee that the Vestal Steering Committee
has decided to attempt to obtain a lease for the Coalition members now rather
than later and that now (with a moratorium still in place and with the price of
natural gas at a relatively low amount and with the economy still in a relatively
depressed state) the Llama Lease is a reasonable way to proceed. It must
also be remembered that another difference between the Vestal Coalition and the
Binghamton-Conklin Coalition might be the fact that we have been experiencing a
considered effort by Chesapeake and other Gas Companies to sign property owners
in the Town of Vestal and it is no secret that we have lost a number of our
Coalition members and as you will recall it was the Steering Committee's
judgment that to sit around and wait would result in further decimation of the
Coalition.
Although I do not know the exact situation in the Binghamton-Conklin area it may be that they are not suffering as great a loss as we have in coalition members; therefore, the Binghamton-Conklin Coalition may have more latitude to sit back and wait than we have.
In closing, so much will depend on what the future brings: if the economy picks
up, the moratorium is lifted and if the price of natural gas jumps up to $14.00
a mfc then it is likely that gas companies will be falling over each other
to sign coalitions in our area. However, if that does not happen for a
number of years and if we continue to experience a weak economy with a
relatively low price of natural gas and if the moratorium continues and if
coalition membership continues to decline then you may find that the
Binghamton-Conklin Coalition might wish that it had taken a course of action
similar to the Vestal Coalition.
Rob Wedlake
October 17, 2009
At this time all coalition members should have received an e-mail copy of our lease and agreement for review as well as all other documents needed to complete the transaction. There were some issues with the e-mail distribution system we use and some members may have been missed or your email may not have contained the appropriate attachments. If you did not receive the email correctly please email us at vestalcoalition@coalitionconnection.com and we will send them to you.
As a reminder we will be meeting tomorrow, October 18th at 3:00 p.m. at Our Lady of Sorrows School. This meeting is for members and Town of Vestal residents who are interested in becoming members. Our attorney will be reviewing our lease in detail and representatives from the energy company will also be on hand to answer any questions you may have.
October 13, 2009
An email went out today to all coalition members regarding the offer we are pursuing. We will be holding another meeting this Sunday, October 18th at 3:00 p.m. at Our Lady of Sorrows School for members and landowner's in the Town of Vestal. Representatives from the energy will be available for questions and our attorney, Robert H. Wedlake will be review the coalition's lease.
September 29, 2009
The Steering Committee members met several time during the past week and most recently Monday evening (9/28). The agenda included updates regarding current negotiations with several gas companies including Fortuna, Chesapeake and Llama. As previously noted by agreement with each of them the committee can not share specific points with our membership, however we can advise that all are very interested in successfully reaching agreement to lease Vestal Coalition properties. Each company noted will offer updated proposals during this week addressing both financial, environmental and lease language elements of their proposals. The committee is confident of reaching a mutually beneficial proposal that will be offered to the full membership soon. We feel confident that proposal will be better than any currently confirmed by the news media.
We know that at least Chesapeake is
aggressing contacting and offering individual land owners in Vestal individual
lease offer for your properties. The decision is ultimately yours to accept or
pass on these offers, however the Steering Committee advises that the leases
offered are very complex and favor the gas company in many ways.
The Coalition membership will only achieve the best “overall” lease offers if we resist accepting individual offers and leverage our “strength in numbers” position. The latest example of this is clearly defined by the Friendsville deal that acknowledged the positive results only achieved by KEEPING THE MEMBERSHIP TOGETHER leveraging unity and significant acreage for their final deal. Their coalition leadership worked for 2 years before achieving the goal.
They were patient as we in the Vestal
Coalition must be patient.
When ask by a landman offering his lease
option, “What has your coalition done for you”? We suggest your answer should
include:
- Area gas leases have increased from $ 50 to $100 acre 13% royalties from 2004 to 2008.
- During the past 18 months offers increased from $100 to $5500 and most recently $5750 acre and 20% royalties.
- In additions “landowner friendly” lease terms addressing real environmental concerns have evolved protecting our water and many other critical concerns.
Additional information is that our local news
stations yesterday announced the DEC will release on Wednesday their regulatory
policy controlling gas companies permitting and all environmental related
activities in New York. The committee feels that this event will only increase
the value of our mineral rights, further reason to delay any final decisions
regarding signing a lease.
In preparation for our eventual signing of a
Vestal Coalition lease we have arranged for membership meetings addressing
information benefiting understanding the many options related to financial and
estate planning, accounting services and legal advice. All of this will be
offered free to the membership by local firms at several meeting in the
planning stage starting in about 2 weeks.
In closing we welcome our new membership
currently averaging one landowner daily. We all need to contact our Vestal friends or
neighbors with “acreage” to share your knowledge and support of joining our
membership, increasing our bargaining strength and sharing the rewards of our
pending success.
Planning for success,
Vestal
Coalition Steering Committee
September 17, 2009
The following was sent out to our members via email:
Your Vestal Steering Committee is please to advise the following update:
The committee has been meeting regularly and has received both written and verbal offers. As previously mentioned, an offer was received approximately two months ago and was structured similar to the Hess/Seneca offer that was widely publicized. The committee felt that the offer was below market standards and continues to have dialogue with the company. Other offers since received have been equal to or better than current market offers around the region. Please understand that these companies have requested that information exchanged be confidential in nature which limits us in our ability to disseminate specifics to you while we engage in confidential negotiations with these companies. As activity in the region has increase and the release date of the SGEIS draws near more and more companies are moving back into the area. We are very hopeful that we will be able to present a solid proposal to the membership.
We continue efforts to increase our membership making our coalition acreage more contiguous and marketable. Last year energy companies turned us down due to the lack of solid blocks of land. Several times we have reached out and asked our members to help recruit their friends and neighbors. While our membership has increased, we are still lacking many parcels of land necessary to make us attractive for the best offers. The Steering Committee members have directly contacted over 800 landowners in the Town of Vestal promoting our group. However, there are few of us and many of you so we are again asking for your help. If you have any thoughts or ideas on how we can effectively increase our membership please contact anyone of the Steering Committee. We are always open to creative ideas from our membership.
As previously mentioned, we realize that
landmen are again knocking on the doors of our members. Please keep in mind that these landmen are
purposefully trying to pick our group apart.
While their offers may be tempting, the benefits of joining and
remaining with a group have been proven.
As you have seen the Friendsville Group, one the first groups to form
and thereby working at this the longest, has obtained a very respectable offer
with a highly protective lease. Their success
is based in part to a loyal group with contiguous acreage.
August 16, 2009
The Steering Committee will be having a tent at the Vestal Center Community Picnic on August 23rd. The event will be held from Noon to 5:00 p.m. at the Vestal Center Fire Hall. This is an opportunity for members and non-members alike to speak one on one with steering committee members and to have any questions answered that you may have. We will be accepting new members at this event.
August 6, 2009
The Vestal Steering Committee has received an offer from an energy company. We met with the company last week and the meeting was very productive. At this time we continue to negotiate with that company for a more favorable offer. Additionally, we are continuing to engage other energy companies and are optimistic that other offers will be forthcoming.
The Steering Committee is committed to finding an offer that maximizes benefits for everyone. As we enter into negotiations coalition members may be approached by different energy companies looking to gain a lease position. We strongly advise that coalition members resist the urge to sign a lease agreement. This will only serve to weaken our negotiation position and will not allow you the protections that the coalition’s lease offers.
July 5, 2009
The Vestal Steering Committee sent out an e-mail update to Members of the Vestal Coalition on July 3rd. If you are a member of the Vestal Coalition and did not receive an email, please contact us.
We are planning a meeting for all members on Friday, July 24th at 7:00 p.m. at Our Lady of Sorrows School on Main St. in Vestal. Please mark your calendars and plan to attend. We will be sending out more information on specifics of the event in the next couple of weeks. Anyone living in the Town of Vestal who is interested in joining the coalition is encouraged to attend.
June 22, 2009
The
Vestal Steering Committee met the morning of June 13, 2009 and an email
has been distributed with information on decisions made at the
meeting.
Over the past several
months it has become obvious that there needs to be some changes in the
communication dynamics of the Vestal Steering Committee as well
as the Vestal Coalition in general. There seems to be emerging renewed
interest by some energy companies and the steering committee needs an
injection of new ideas and energy. In order to achieve this, the steering
committee needs the assistance of more volunteers from our coalition.
These volunteers will have a multi-purpose function that includes attending
some steering committee meetings as well as acting as a liason/contact
point between the steering committee and a designated group of the
volunteer's coalition neighbors and friends. The fundamental goal of the
Steering Committee continues to be a win-win lease agreement with an
energy company. The additional Steering Committee members will present new
ideas, help improve communication with our membership as well as increase the
overall efficiency.
We will be holding an informational meeting for anyone interested in assisting this Friday, June 19th at 7:00 p.m. at the Vestal Fire Station #2 in Vestal Center.
More information and details about the responsibilities of these
positions will be discussed so potential volunteers can make an
informed decision about becoming a member of the Steering Committee. If
you are interested in more information but cannot attend this meeting
you may contact any member of our steering committee or reply to this
email.
The Vestal Steering Committee
Latest Information - Updated May 4, 2009
It has been just over 30 days since we entered our agreement with The Lease Auction House. An update has been emailed to those who submitted their contract(s) to HH&K before the deadline of March 27th.
For those interested their are still natural gas meetings and seminars being held in and around our area as well as web lecture series from various entities. We will try to keep the Calendar of Events updated as best as we can.
March 26, 2009
As a reminder, all forms need to be completed and turned into HH&K along with your $15 fee no later than March 27th. Checks can be made out to HH&K Trust Account.
One of our members has suggested the use of a web monitoring service for those who are not able to check for updates to this site on a regular basis. He uses Watch That Page, however there a several similar services out there that could be used.
As many of you may have heard, State Legislators are considering an 11th hour budget proposal placing a 5% tax on oil & natural gas production in New YorkState. Yesterday, four business groups announced their preemptive objection to the budget proposal.
Representatives of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York, Unshackle Upstate, New York Farm Bureau and the Greater Binghamton Chamber of Commerce are urged lawmakers to reject a proposed production tax saying the tax would put thousands of low-volume producing wells out of business and negatively impact state and local governments through loss of property taxes, loss of royalty payments for landowners —particularly farmers — forcing companies to lay off workers.
“The difficulty that we’re having now in our area is that, the industry can’t get a foothold,” said Lawrence Brinker of the Greater Binghamton Chamber of Commerce and the Unshackle Upstate coalition. Brinker argues drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale formation, located in New York’s Southern Tier, is the best economic opportunity the area has had in 25 years. “New York state government has put a moratorium on drilling permits, now they want to tax the industry, they want to do everything possible to discourage drilling in the Southern Tier and that’s just not an acceptable approach to economic development. We have to have a viable gas industry in our area to sustain our economic future.” (Anna Helhoski, “Businesses, Farmers Protest Rumored Tax on Drilling”, The Legislative Gazette, March 25, 2009)
The Legislator’s argument in part, is that funds are needed to provide oversight of new wells. While the question of how the DEC will have the staffing or funds to regulate the industry have been and still are in question, the estimated tax revenue of $30 Million in the next fiscal year has not to date been indicated to go anywhere but into the General Fund.
This press conference has received great coverage throughout New York (links to much of this coverage can be found below), however our elected officials need to hear from us, their constituents and landowners. Rumors indicate that the Assembly will move on this quickly leaving little time for us to have our voice heard.
Please take moment to contact your officials and let them know that we are opposed to a tax so high that it will deter energy companies from ever moving into New York, especially if the revenues from the tax will not be utilized for the necessary regulation needed by the DEC.
You can quickly and easily have your voice heard through the IOGA-NY website. You can join their campaign "Don't Leave New York Out in the Cold - Just Say No to a Severance Tax on Natural Gas" by going to their website at http://www.iogany.org/.
A listing of elected officials and their contact information can also be found on the Contact Elected tab at the top of this page.
Links to press coverage:
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Attention: There was an error in regards to the address of Our Lady of Sorrows School (OLS) for the Saturday, March 21st Open House. OLS is located at 806 Main Street in Vestal NOT on Charles St.
To: Vestal Coalition Members
We want to advise all of the Members of the Vestal Coalition that the Steering Committee has voted to recommend that the Coalition attempt to obtain an oil and gas lease through The Lease Auction House (LAH). Many of you who attended our last Coalition Meeting on Friday, March 6th, were introduced to LAH through the presentation by Mr. Jeff Decker.
Entering into a contract with LAH will obligate the Vestal Coalition to them for a period of 90 days. However we do not feel this will result in any significant loss of other opportunities. The Steering Committee has made this decision based upon two major factors:
1) there are no oil and gas companies that are actively soliciting coalitions in Broome County
2) given the current state of the economy and the existence of the New York State moratorium on issuing gas permits into the Marcellus Shale, it is unlikely that the oil and gas leasing activity will dramatically increase in the immediate future.
One advantage of LAH is that utilizing their services will not result in any fee to them, unless an oil and gas lease is signed. The only “cost” to the Coalition and to the Coalition Members will be an updated map of the Coalition property. Additionally, the Steering Committee feels that the exposure that we will receive by signing with LAH will be worth the effort even if the venture does not result in the Coalition Members obtaining an oil and gas lease.
Hinman, Howard & Kattell, LLP (HH&K) has reviewed the LAH contract and has advised the Steering Committee that no fee will be owed to LAH unless they are successful in bringing about an oil and gas lease deal for the Coalition Members. The LAH contract will obligate the Coalition to give LAH the exclusive right to try to find a deal for us for a period of 90 days and, we would be prohibited from signing a lease with a company that LAH has brought to us for a period of 30 days after the termination of the 90 days. In other words, if LAH brings us a deal, we would be prevented from simply waiting for the expiration of the 90 days to sign with a gas company to avoid paying LAH commission.
If the LAH is successful in bringing about a deal, there will be a 4% commission paid to them. The 4% would be calculated on the bonus paid to the Coalition Member. For instance, if the bonus paid to the Coalition Member were to be $50,000.00 the bonus payable to the Lease Auction House would be $2,000.00. In addition, the Coalition Member would also still be obligated to pay HH&K the legal fee calculated at the rate of $15.00 an acre with a minimum of $300.00 and a maximum fee of $2,500.00.
The Steering Committee would like to move the LAH matter along quickly for several reasons: first, this is the time of year that many gas companies are looking to sign lease deals. Second, if we are able to enter into the agreement with LAH by April 1st, the 90 day contractual agreement with them would expire by July 1st. If LAH cannot deliver a good offer, we will be “back on the market” in July, before the moratorium is likely to be lifted. Additionally, once we make it through the 90 day contractual obligation with LAH, we may use them in the future without any further 90 day commitments required. Accordingly, it is critical for all Coalition Members to act on this matter immediately. In order to proceed with LAH, all the Coalition Members must sign the LAH contract and all of the Coalition Members must also sign the Fee Retainer Agreement with HH&K.
Therefore, we are going to have two open house meetings to allow all of the Coalition Members to obtain copies of the Lease Auction House contract and the Hinman, Howard & Kattell, LLP Fee Agreement form and to answer Member’s questions. Representatives from LAH and from HH&K will be attending both of these open houses. In addition, the Lease that HH&K has prepared for our Coalition will also be available at the open houses.
The first open house will be held on Wednesday, March 18th from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Vestal Center Fire Hall, Coleman St./Park Avenue, Vestal Center. The second open house meeting will be held at the Our Lady of Sorrows School located on Main St., Vestal on Saturday, March 21st from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. The Steering Committee wants to have all of the LAH contracts and the HH&K Fee Agreements signed by no later that Friday, March 27th so that we can go into contract with the Lease Auction House as of April 1st. Therefore, we would urge you to attend one of the open houses to have all of your questions answered and so that you can get a copy of the Lease Auction House contract, the Hinman, Howard & Kattell Fee Agreement and the Hinman, Howard & Kattell Lease. Otherwise, if we do not have these signed agreements on file by March 27th your property will not be able to be included in the potential bids.
The Steering Committee also wants to advise all the Coalition Members that the Steering Committee is going to transfer all of the Coalition records to Hinman, Howard & Kattell for safe keeping. Hinman, Howard & Kattell, as attorneys for the Coalition will keep the records confidential, but if any Member objects to the transfer of that Member’s coalition data to Hinman, Howard & Kattell, you must inform a member of the Steering Committee no later than Tuesday, March 17th.
As many of you know, the Steering Committee Members have been incurring expenses for photocopying, for website development and maintenance, for fees associated with membership meetings and for other matters that the Steering Committee Members have paid for out of their own pockets. Additionally, there may be a small additional expense required to put together an updated coalition map for purposes of marketing with LAH and with other potential gas companies. Accordingly, we plan to be collecting a Membership Fee of $15 at both of our open houses. The money will be used to reimburse the Steering Committee Members who have paid money out of their own pockets and will be used to produce a coalition map and to otherwise to market the coalition property; all of the Steering Committee Members are strictly volunteer and no one is being paid for their time or for their services on behalf of the Coalition. We thank you for your donations thus far and appreciate your understanding.
In conclusion, the Steering Committee has determined that the benefits of using LAH outweigh the risks. At a minimum, we will be gaining unprecedented exposure on the internet and otherwise to hundreds of oil and gas companies which will benefit us now and in the future. We need all of the Members to act on this matter expeditiously in order to begin marketing the Vestal Gas Coalition.
Vestal Coalition Steering Committee
March 9, 2009
Happy New Year!
The Steering Committee met twice over the last several weeks to discuss the current situation regarding gas leasing in New York. Unfortunately leasing has come to a virtual halt in our area while the DEC completes its review of drilling regulations. We still fee there is hope for a positive outcome in our community. The decisions regarding drilling permits made by the DEC in the next few months will have a direct impact on how gas leasing will proceed in our State. We need to continue to let the DEC, Governor Patterson and all of our lawmakers know that while we support environmentally safe drilling, our area needs the positive economic impact that gas drilling will bring. We must encourage the decision makers to complete the review as soon as possible with no delays or our business opportunity will surely be diminished or lost.
Many of you have seen the local news sources, especially the Press & Sun Bulletin run frequent articles on the subject that while very informative, focus on the negative aspect of drilling and rarely the potential positive economic impact. Drilling in BroomeCounty will bring local jobs! It will also bring in visiting workers that will stay in local hotels, eat at local restaurants and shop in local stores.
There is considerable lobbying for one position or another regarding gas drilling that never makes it to the news. Many of these groups already have a strong voice in Albany and have the potential to be very influential. There are other groups that keep abreast of the situation but have not yet thrown their hat into the ring to support drilling in anyway because they do not want to become involved in such a controversial subject. In addition, almost all of our elected officials are in some way involved in the energy arena if not directly in the gas drilling phenomenon then they are supporting other means of alternative energy such wind, solar, water and geothermal energy. These are the groups and individuals that we need to encourage to support environmental friendly gas drilling and to promote to them the positive economic impacts that drilling can bring to our area and our state. At this time they are only hearing from those opposed to drilling. Those of us in favor of drilling with safe environmental practices need to make our voices heard too.
Listed below are the contact information for some of the elected officials and groups referred to above. Please take the time to contact them and to encourage them to become more involved in helping to bring a quick resolution to the DEC Environmental Impact Study and for new regulations to be a balance between protecting the environment that we all are concerned about and parameters that all gas companies can work within.
Governor David Patterson State Capitol Albany, NY12224 (518) 474-8390 Senator Thomas Libous 1607 State Office Building 44 Hawley St Binghamton, NY13901 (607) 773-8771 Pete Grannis, Commissioner NYS DEC 625 Broadway Albany, NY12233-0001 (518) 402-8545 Barbara Fiala, Executive Broome County 44 Hawley St PO Box 1766 Binghamton, NY13902-1766 Congressman Michael Arcuri 10 Broad St Utica, NY13501 (315) 793-8146 Congressman Maurice Hinchey 100 A Federal Building Binghamton, NY13901 (607) 773-2768 Assemblywomen Donna Lupardo Binghamton State Office Building 17th Floor Binghamton, NY13901 (607) 723-9047 lupardod@assembly.state.ny.us Assemblyman Gary Finch 69 South Street Auburn, NY13021 (315) 255-3045 Assemblyman Clifford Crouch 1 Kattelville Rd. Suite 1 Binghamton, NY13901 (607) 648-6080 Greater Binghamton Chamber of Commerce Government Affairs Director PO Box 995 Binghamton, NY13902-0995 (607) 772-8860 x 316 lbrinker@binghamtonchamber.com
November 13, 2008Here is some information we received from the Louisiana Oil & Gas Association we encourage you, if you agree with the Press Release, to sign their petition.
The Louisiana Oil & Gas Association, has just completed an online petition urging Congress to defeat the President’s plan to increase taxes on our industry. We will be sending this out to our membership and all associations that we can. We need to respond strongly as an industry and this is our opportunity.
Please take the time to sign the petition, and pass this along to everyone you know. This plan will not only attack our industry but will raises energy costs for all Americans and will threaten our Nations energy security.
For more information on the issue, please read our press release below.
To Sign the Petition, please follow this link: http://www.loga.la/obama-budget.html
President Barack Obama announced his FY2010 budget request last week, he also unveiled a tax increase of over $30 billion for US natural gas and oil production investment, which is the most devastating tax proposal in the history of America’s oil and natural gas industry. Already the second largest revenue stream for the U.S. Treasury, the oil and gas industry is a large employer, tax payer, and revenue stream for Federal, State and Local Governments.
“I am greatly disturbed by this most recent attack on our Industry,” LOGA President Don Briggs said today. “The oil crash in the mid eighties was a cakewalk compared to what this could be,” Briggs also said. “The eighties crash was due to a crash in oil prices. Today, we are experiencing a crash in oil prices, natural gas prices, world recession, tight investment capital and now a proposal to rescind all economic incentives of the oil and gas industry.”
Natural gas and oil provide 65 percent of America’s energy. America’s independent natural gas and oil producers develop 90 percent of US wells, produce 82 percent of US natural gas and produce 68 percent of US oil. Independent producers reinvest over 100 percent of American oil and natural gas cash flow back into new American production. Lower natural gas and oil prices and the tight credit market are limiting investment capital; drilling activity is down over 25 percent since a year ago. (Source: Independent Petroleum Association of America)
For Louisiana, which prides itself in being THE Energy State, a slow down in drilling activity translates into fewer jobs, less investment in community, and less state and local revenue from producing companies.
In a time of global insecurity, it is imperative that the United States become independent from foreign oil sources, to ensure our Nations’ security. The oil and gas industry supports the development of alternative fuels as an important part of our future. However, as we encourage that growth, we cannot ignore the vital role this industry plays in our present. Removing natural gas and oil from the equation of a varied, comprehensive energy structure for the United States is not practical or feasible.
President Obama’s proposed tax increase, aimed at increasing revenue from the oil and natural gas industry, flies in the face of the goal of creating the comprehensive energy proposal that utilizes all sources of energy.
FY2010 Budget Proposals Include:
Repeal Expensing of Intangible Drilling Costs Repeal of Percentage Depletion · Repeal Marginal Well Tax Credit · Repeal Enhanced Oil Recovery Credit · Increases Geological and Geophysical Amortization Costs · Excise Tax on Gulf of Mexico Production Repeal of Manufacturing Tax Deduction Implement a $4/acre fee on Gulf leases designated as non-producing
Jodee Niswanger Bruyninckx
Director of North Louisiana
Louisiana Oil & Gas Association - LOGA
400 Travis Street, Suite 1501
Shreveport, LA 71101
Work: (318) 841-6505
Fax: (318) 841-6506
jodee@loga.la
www.loga.la
February 2, 2009
The gas lease situation in New York has clearly gone to sleep since the announcement of the drilling moratorium and the down turn in the economy. However, there is some activity that is starting to re-emerge and the steering committee has resumed meeting on a more regular basis. We are in the process of researching opportunities that need to be presented to you for feedback. We have also decided to utilize the services of Hinman, Howard, and Kattel, LLP. We feel they have more resources available to handle the size of our coalition, and they will be at the upcoming meeting to answer questions. We would like to thank Jim Ward for all of his dedication and help over the past several months. Within the next couple of weeks we will finalize information and are arranging for guest speakers. Once we have all of the details, we will be sending out another email to let you know when and where we will be meeting.
Furthermore, Jeff Decker has decided to step down from the steering committee. Jeff has taken a position working in the Oil & Gas Industry. Jeff realizes that there is a potential for a conflict of interest between the two positions, thus he decided to resign his position as a member of the Vestal Coalition Steering Committee. We would like to thank Jeff for his guidance, leadership, drive, and countless hours of work. Jeff is very passionate about this group and prays that we have a successful outcome – Please be sure and thank him personally!!
Following Jeff’s resignation, Linda Hickling announced that it is in the best interest of our group that she also steps down as a voting member of the Steering Committee because of her relationship with Jeff. Linda will continue to assist in obtaining information, setting up group meetings, distributing emails, maintaining the website and any other tasks that need to be completed. Again, Linda remains as a non-voting, but critical steering committee attendee.
We are also opening up membership again to any Vestal/Apalachin land owners who have not previously joined and would like to at this time. Any landowners wishing to join may do so at our upcoming meeting. Those wishing to join should bring copies of their deeds (available at the county web site at http://www.gobcclerk.com for a nominal fee if you can’t find yours), and complete the Application Form .
If you have not already heard, Governor Patterson is coming to Binghamton this Wednesday, February 4th for a Town Hall meeting. The steering committee continues to feel that those of us in favor of drilling need to have our voices heard in Albany and this is an opportunity for us to do so in a local venue. Our local legislators and even federal ones (Schumer) are hearing a lot more from anti-drilling groups, than they are from landowners in favor of drilling. The economic impact of gas drilling can positively affect the whole region, not just landowners. Let your voice be heard! This is a town hall style meeting being held at BCC and it is necessary to RSVP. You many obtain more information, register and submit a question to him by visiting http://www.ny.gov/governor/townhalls/register.php. If you plan on attending, please wear a red shirt, or anything red, and meet outside the west gym at 4:15 pm. We will try and sit together.
Please continue to talk with your neighbors and your government representatives about gas leasing, and remember that there is strength in numbers.
January 30, 2009
Jeff Decker, one of the founding members of this group has recently taken a paid position within the Oil & Gas Industry. Due to this new position there may be the potential for a conflict of interest with his position on the Steering Committee. For this reason both Jeff Decker and Linda Hickling have resigned from the Steering Committee effective today. Linda has offered to remain available to assist the committee in any way needed. While Jeff and Linda both work at their regular jobs, Linda will also be helping to advocate the effort in Albany to obtain a timely and balanced response to the DEC Environmental Impact Review.
The Steering Committee will continue to move forward in their research of opportunities. The committee will be meeting this weekend to discuss ways to move ahead and expect to have a large group meeting in the next few weeks.
We have had many emails inquiring about the annoucement a couple of weeks ago from the Kirkwood Group. This is not a lease with an oil & gas company but an agreement for their consultant to market to the energy companies. Their consultant has 60 days to get an energy company to agree to their terms and conditions and finalize a deal.
The draft for the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement is available on the DEC website at http://www.dec.ny.gov/energy/45912.html
December 29, 2008
At this time we are closely watching the DEC’s progress in their review of their regulatory program. The DEC released the Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement in early October. If you have not already done so, you may review the draft here. The DEC is holding several public meetings around the Southern Tier and Catskills to give information and receive comments. The Binghamton meeting will be held on Monday, November 17th at Broome Community College, West Gym, 901 Upper Front St. Doors will open at 4:30 p.m. with the formal meeting beginning at 5:15. Brief remarks by the Department staff will be followed by public comments starting at 6:00. A copy of the Department’s presentation can be found here.
The Groundwater Protection Council released a report at their 2008 annual forum in September to address concerns on hydraulic fracturing. The report reviews the history and evolution of hydraulic fracturing, geological and well engineering factors, and the fluids characteristics. Water protection is also something that the DEC is certainly focusing on in their reviews. This ground water protection diagram shows how the required well casing and cement protects water aquifers.
Pete Grannis, Commissioner of the DEC gave testimony on Natural Gas Drilling to the NYS Assembly a couple of weeks ago. A copy of his statement can be found on the DEC website.
The Steering Committee will be meeting again in the next week to take another look at our options at this point. We will give you another update in the next couple of weeks.
• Traditionally companies do not negotiate leases in the fourth quarter and/or third quarter if that is the end of their fiscal year.
• Industry wide bids and negotiations have slowed from a very busy spring and summer throughout the country. In the past week bidding/leasing has slowed or ceased in 11 other states that we have been following.
• Many companies are citing the lack of the ability to obtain permits of horizontal drilling until after the DEC’s environmental impact review is completed.
• Like you and I, many companies borrow monies to make acquisitions and the recent events on Wall Street and other financial venues have slowed their ability to obtain funding for leasing.
• Many of the energy companies located in Texas are still in the process of recovering from Hurricane Ike.
In other words the slowdown that we are seeing in our area is commonplace throughout the country. Your Steering Committee is still committed to the principals that we originally set out with a few months ago, which are:
1. Creating a marketable, landowner friendly lease.
2. Educating our members on the drawbacks of signing a generic company written lease.
3. On-going research regarding market trends, environmental concerns and legislative objectives.
4. Continually marketing our lease to all prospective oil & gas companies.
We still anticipate this area being very prominent in the Marcellus gas play as the activity immediately to our south is very vigorous as indicated by the current number of wells being drilled and the expected outcome.
Unless we have something definitive to report we anticipate that our next update will be in approximately 4 weeks.
September 13, 2008
The Steering Committee continues to work with several companies. While many of these companies have offices located somewhere in the Northeast, many of them are located in or have corporate offices located in and around Houston. A couple of the companies contacted us earlier in the week letting us know that they expect to be out of reach for several days due to Hurricane Ike. Please keep the residents of Texas in your prayers.
September 5, 2008
At this time we have 4 companies that we are in active dialog with regarding our lease. To characterize the discussions it is important to note that the companies have expressed interest in primarily developmental properties. While the Steering Committee is still focused on getting both lease types placed, we would like to encourage property owners who have expressed interest in non-developmental leases to reconsider a developmental lease. We are continuing our research into companies possibly interested in the Marcellus Shale and will move forward contacting them in the next week or so.
August 29, 2009
Last week the Steering Committee submitted a status update. In the update we conveyed that while we have not yet received a concrete offer from an energy company there is still tremendous optimism that we will have success. The Committee is now taking a direct and significant role in the marketing effort. The initial plan is to open the aperture to a wider energy company audience. To that end we have purchased a searchable web based directory of all energy companies with operations in the Midwest and Northeast. With this tool we have created a list of more than forty energy companies that are currently in the Marcellus play or are widely viewed as interested in this geographic area.
Several members of the Steering Committee are in ongoing discussions with at least six new companies to understand the level of interest and any concerns with the Vestal Coalition approach. Additionally, Jeff Decker and Jim Ward are also still following up with several companies that have traditionally had an interest in our area and responded to our initial offer.
The Steering Committee will continue to provide weekly updates to you via the website unless we have sensitive or major information to pass along, in which case an email will be sent out. As always, we appreciate your help in communicating any updates to those who do not have internet access.
We would like to extend a sincere thank you to those who have turned in their DEED copies. As a reminder to those who have not, DEED copies are due to Jeff Decker as soon as possible. It is time consuming to sort, file and document necessary information from your deeds. We are collecting them now so that all information can be prepared and ready when needed to ensure the process is not held up at a later date. The mailing address for the copies can be found in our Update Archive.
August 22, 2009
The results from the marketing of the Vestal Coalition lease have produced no concrete offers. Clearly, this is a disappointment. However, this is still a very fluid endeavor with some positive leads that are active and still being pursued.
The feedback that we have received from Vince Stalis is that many of the energy companies that were initially interested in the Vestal area have pulled out. There are numerous rumors circulating about the reasoning behind the pull out, but the widespread thought is that there are three basic rationales:
1) Current and impending water restrictions
2) Setback due to the Patterson Bill
3) The energy companies have already leased enough acreage to perform exploratory drilling and are waiting for positive results.
There is also a prevailing opinion that the energy companies are frustrated with the high sign-on bonuses and numerous coalitions that have formed within the last several months throughout Broome, Tioga and Delaware counties (in addition to Northern Pennsylvania). Energy companies are unmotivated because many land owners have become "gas lease savvy" with an understanding of the true market value of a land lease.
We are continuing to allow Vince Stalis to pursue his contacts in the energy market and run down any leads that he has. However, the members of the steering committee feel that we need to take a more active role in the marketing and there are additional initiatives that the committee members are going to undertake outside of Vince's effort:
1) There are ongoing discussions with the general counsel of several energy companies that are still in the process of reviewing our lease. We feel we need to understand and address any energy company concerns in a timely manner.
2) We have obtained several new contacts via individual efforts and are aggressively pursuing these companies - meetings are being setup. There are three within the next two weeks.
3) We have been in contact with other coalitions (both local and out West) for marketing ideas and strategies.
Unfortunately it is taking longer than we expected but it is important to note that other coalitions (both old and new) are in the same position.
The bottom line is – there is gas under our feet and the energy companies want access to it. At this point we feel that this is nothing more than a time delay. All of the reasoning behind forming a coalition is still valid. We have a solid coalition with an attractive offer of valuable acreage. We strongly feel that, in the end, a fair and equitable land lease will be signed by this coalition.
We have been able to move at break-neck speed until now, but many circumstances have come together to deal us a slow hand. Your continued patience and faith in our coalition is critical at this time. Be assured your steering committee is still actively volunteering it's time towards a positive outcome and will do everything it can to achieve desirable results for everyone we represent.
August 18, 2008
Thank you to everyone who has sent in copies of your deed(s). Our goal is to have all of our information compiled and ready to go when it is requested from an energy company. Therefore, if you have not yet sent yours in please have them postmarked by August 21st. We are also asking that you discuss this with your neighbors as a reminder to them to get their information in, especially if they do not have internet access.
As a side note, while Jeff and Linda love to meet and chat with everyone, they are quite busy with two young boys and are asking for everyone to mail their information in rather than dropping by their house unexpectedly. Copies can be mailed to:
Jeff Decker
2350 Glenwood Rd
Vestal, NY 13850
Please click here for a copy of the Landowner information form to be submitted with a lease that is not up to date.
The Steering Committee is awaiting the August 21st deadline to pass and will then meet with Jim Ward to learn about any offers to our group. Once we have had time to review the information and determine our next steps we will put an update online.
August 5, 2008
Thanks to one of our members for sending me this information on obtaining a copy of our deeds! The fee is $1.35 and they are ordered online.
You may go to www.gobcclerk.com and this will bring you to the Clerk’s PARIS website, look to your left upon entering into the site and click on document search. Enter last name then a space and first name where you see party names. This will take you to different documents you may view. When you have decided which one you would like to purchase you will see where to add it to your cart for a purchase. If you experience any problems there is a help/info site you can refer to if you go back to the beginning. If you have any further questions in regards to the deeds, you may call 607-778-2255.
August 4, 2008
Vince met with two companies yesterday and the meetings went very well with positive responses. Both companies are currently active in the area with plans to become more active in a short time period. One of the companies is bringing in 30 more people in the next month and is in the process of establishing a local office. As mentioned before, these companies were given an August 21st deadline to have their bids returned.
Now, for the promised homework assignment...
It is time for us to begin collecting a copy of your deeds as well as some other information if your deed is not up to date.
We want to apologize ahead of time as some information we will be requesting is somewhat personal as we do have to ask if you are married, divorced, widowed, etc. and we will also be obtaining your social security number or Federal ID number for businesses. Please note that we will not be collecting your social security number until we have to give it to the energy company. Your social security number will be provided to the government in order for you to get a form 1099 for tax purposes. Please note that your personal information will only be collected by two members of the steering committee and will not be shared with anyone except for our contact person at the energy company that we finalize our deal with. It is stored on a secure computer that is fingerprint protected.
We need a copy of each deed for each parcel you have submitted. Please note that one parcel may have more than one deed, especially if they were at one time merged.
*** Please note: If the deed has more than one person listed, then all person’s listed on the deed will be listed on the lease and all will need to sign the lease. This includes owner’s who live out of town.***
There are two options for you to choose regarding the information needed:
1. Obtain an updated copy of your deed(s) with all information correct.
2. Provide us a copy of your present deed(s) and provide us with any information that has changed. If you choose to provide deed(s) that are not current along with corrected information, you will need to print, complete and mail the form below along with your deed copies. Examples of changes that we would need are:
A. If the information on your deed regarding your neighbors is incorrect, we need the up to date information provided. For example, if the neighbors to your north when you obtained your deed in 1963 are not the neighbors that own the property to your north now then we need to names of the people who currently own the property.
B. If the names and addresses listed on the deed have changed we will also need that information.
Examples:
a. If any owner has an address other than that listed, a correct address and phone number must be supplies.
b. If you were single when you bought the property and you have since married and the deed does not have your spouses name on it, we will need you to provide your spouse’s name.
c. If you are now widowed and your spouse’s name is on the deed, we will need a copy of their death certificate.
d. If you are divorced the deed must be transferred into the sole owner’s name.
C. If you are part of a company that is a LLC we will need a copy of a letter from all parties designating one person with the rights to sign for the LLC (please contact our attorney, James D. Ward, Esq at 722-0999 for more information).
There are many situations that are particular to each landowner. The situations listed above are the most popular scenarios.
We understand that this is somewhat confusing (believe us, we have asked many questions ourselves) so please feel free to email us with any questions that you may have.
Please mail your copies and personal paperwork no later than August 21st to:
Jeff Decker
2350 Glenwood Rd
Vestal, NY 13850
Please click here for a copy of the Landowner information form to be submitted with a lease that is not up to date.
July 30, 2008
In an effort to help the energy companies move forward with reviewing our lease, Jim and Vince have put a bid deadline of 5:00 p.m. on August 21st on our package. This does not necessarily mean that we will have bid information for you shortly thereafter. If we have several bids that are similar, the Steering Committee will need to meet to discuss the offers. Along with this, there may be further negotiations in pricing, royalties and possibly small changes to the lease if requested by the companies. Please be assured that we are as eager to complete this process as you are and will do our absolute best to move it along. However, we will take as much time as we need to research and/or negotiate to get us a lease with maximum protections for our land with a reputable company that is willing to pay us a fair consideration for their right to drill and an acceptable royalty.
Vince will have meetings with two companies on Friday. These are preliminary meetings to personally distribute our bid package to them. They too will be given the August 21st deadline for a bid response.
In our next update, we will be giving you some homework to do that will help things move more quickly once we accept an offer, so stay tuned.....
July 27, 2008
The good news tonight is that Johnson City has apparently agreed to let a couple of companies obtain water for fracking. We are aware of several townships and cities that have requests from companies to obtain water, but so far have only heard of a response from JC. Here is a link to today's article in the Press & Sun.
Governor Patterson signed a bill this week to update Oil & Gas drilling laws in what he feels is an effort to safeguard environmental and public health. The bill extends the State's uniform well spacing to include unit size and set-back requirements for horizontal wells. The new requirements are intended to lead to greater administrative efficiency, result in more effective recovery of oil and natural gas, and reduce unnecessary land disturbance.
From the Press Release: "Governor Paterson has directed DEC to prepare an updated Generic Environmental Impact Statement under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) to ensure that all environmental impacts from drilling are addressed. The update will examine potential impacts from new horizontal drilling techniques, including potential impacts to groundwater, surface water, wetlands, air quality, aesthetics, noise, traffic and community character, as well as cumulative impacts. The update will occur as part of a public process that ensures that concerns raised by residents who could be affected by drilling activities are heard and considered.
In addition, DEC is reviewing a variety of other areas, including staff resources, existing regulations, jurisdiction over water withdrawals, permit application fees and procedures, and legal and regulatory compliance, that could be implicated by increased drilling activity."
On the lease front things continue to progress. Our attorney, Jim Ward and our Consultant, Vince Stalis communicate via telephone daily. While Vince is still moving forward with the companies that have asked for our bid package, he is also waiting for a couple of companies to return their confidentiality forms so that he can move forward pursuing them.
July 18, 2008
Jeff Decker and Vince Stalis attended the Independent Oil & Gas Association (IOGA) convention/meeting in Findley Lake, NY on July 9 & 10. All major energy companies that are interested in our area were there, as well as drilling companies and companies that specifically specialize in fracking and water testing, as well as many attorneys. Our representatives were able to spend time speaking with most all of these companies and have brought back a ton of information and now have the contacts to help us answer questions/concerns that some of our members have. We will be working to compile this information over the next week or so, and will either post the information here, or will bring it to our next large group meeting.
Jeff and Vince met and spoke with representatives, Regional Managers and in some cases, Owners of many of the energy companies interested in our area. The two are currently putting together a trip report for the Steering Committee and we will be posting some of that report here once we receive and review it.
At this time, we are expecting it to be another 7-10 days before we begin hearing back from those companies that have our lease. While this may seem like a lot of time, we need to allow these companies the time they need for their staff and attorneys to properly review it, discuss it and devise their offers to us.
We do plan to have another large group meeting once we have a solid idea of what kind of offers we are receiving. We will set the date for that sometime in the next week or so.
We will post information as we have it coming in. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact any member of the steering committee.
July 21, 2008
Our consultant, Vince is very excited about the responses he has gotten from some of the energy companies that have our lease in hand. At this time there are eight companies with our lease and three of them that have told us they are generally happy with the content and are interested in our group. Of those three, one has moved to the next step in asking for our member information and maps. We will be providing that to them within the next couple of days. The remaining companies are still reviewing specifics of the lease, and we .
expect to hear back from them soon.
We will be posting updates as we get them, so stay tuned...