Marcellus Shale case appealed to Pa. Supreme Court could create ‘chaos’ by questioning ownership of gas rights

By DONALD GILLILAND, The Patriot-News

A court case that many believe has the potential to upend 100 years of case law and God knows how many Marcellus gas leases in Pennsylvania hinges on what the everyday definition of “minerals” was in 1836.

Attorneys at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney who appealed the case to the Supreme Court on Friday say they simply want the high court to reaffirm what’s been “bedrock” property law for more 100 years.

The case involves John and Mary Butler, owners of 244 acres in Susquehanna County, and the heirs of Charles Powers, who in 1881 was granted “one-half the minerals and Petroleum Oils” under the property.

Powers’s heirs argue that they are entitled to half the Marcellus gas under the property as well.

Susquehanna County President Judge Kenneth Seamans ruled against that claim in January 2010, citing what’s known as the “Dunham Rule” – a Supreme Court ruling that has stood since 1882 that a conveyance of “minerals” in a deed does not include oil and gas unless specifically stated. The Powers deed makes no mention of gas.

Powers’s heirs appealed that decision to the Superior Court, arguing that the Dunham Rule should not apply, but rather a 1983 ruling that found U.S. Steel owned the natural gas contained in the coal it owned – not the property owner who had retained the right to drill through the coal for oil and gas.

As the attorney for the heirs put it to the Superior Court: “Whoever owns the shale, owns the gas.”

To read the rest of this article click on the below link.

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/10/marcellus_shale_bellwether_leg.html

 

 

Lisa Addresses Lincoln Place homeowners about Marcellus Shale

The below links are from the Lincoln Place Action Group in the Pittsburgh area. I met some of the folks who put this event together while traveling in Washington County. Lisa Graves (the speaker) is a resident of the Pittsburgh area where they are currently signing leases for drilling and she is a member of the Environmental Quality Control Board.

Part 1-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQQy5ZU2qKY

Part 2- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq9QAiyrAJM

Pipeline Matters

The League of Women Voters of Susquehanna County will host two upcoming events as part of its educational series on Marcellus Shale.

A Friday event entitled Pipeline Matters will address right-of-way agreements, lease negotiation questions, landowner options and pipeline impact, according to a news release from the group. A May 7 program, Environmental Impact, will focus on issues relating to Marcellus Shale production and effects on surface water and groundwater. Experts will speak during each program.

Both events will take place from 7 to 9:30 p.m. in the Montrose Area High School auditorium.

House Bill 2235

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives will consider Rep. Vitali’s House Bill 2235 this week. The bill would place a 5-year moratorium on new leases of State Forest to natural gas drillers.  The five years would give DCNR time to study the impacts current drilling leases will have on the environmental, economic and recreational values of our State Forests.  After the moratorium ends, the bill would allow DCNR to lease further lands only if DCNR determines that such leases can be done without threatening water and air quality, habitat, ecosystems, recreational, social and asthetic values of the forests.

Call your PA Representative and ask them to
1. support the moratorium bill, and
2. vote against weakening amendments.

Find your representative’s contact information.  Just use box labeled “Find Members By” in the upper-right hand corner…

Background:

One third of our state forests are already open to natural gas drilling.  Without careful scientific study and planning, we can’t know what additional drilling, if any, can occur without harming our publicly owned forest’s environmental, economic and recreational values.  Our state forests are one of our greatest public assets, protecting our highest quality streams, providing public recreation, supporting tourism, and providing a sustainable timber supply.  As such, we should exercise balance and restraint when considering making additional lands available for drilling.

Several amendments have been filed which seek to weaken the moratorium proposal, mainly by shortening the moratorium to 1 year.  The moratorium needs to be 5 years to yield enough data to meaningfully understand the cumulative effects of drilling in our State Forests.  To date, there are only 9 Marcellus wells in production in State Forests; however, 2000 more are expected to be drilled in the next 5 years.

No private lands will be affected by the moratorium nor will any State Forest land already leased.

The moratorium would take effect after the additional leasing of state forests already planned by Governor Rendell for the 2010-2011 budget (which is expected to yield $112 million).

For more information, please call 717-230-8560.

Leasing of PA state land for natural gas drilling

Here is a link to the transcript about the PA House Majority Policy Committee’s public hearing regarding the leasing of state and for gas drilling.

http://www.pahouse.com/policycommittee/documents/31810hmpc.pdf

Stand up for what you believe in – You know what’s at stake!

Pittsburgh – Philadelphia – Ohiopyle – Harrisburg

It’s time to show up and be counted

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR OUR STATE FORESTS

Stand up for what you believe in – You know what’s at stake!

Be a Hero for our Forests
Attend an event to show your support for protecting our precious state forests from further natural gas drilling and for an impact fee to ensure drillers pay their fair share

Currently the state legislature is moving forward with a budget plan that relies on new natural gas drilling leases on state forest land to cover the budget shortfall – threatening our public natural resources and compromising public access to our forest land.

We need forest heroes- our legislators and Governor Rendell must pledge not to support a budget that relies in drilling in forests. Instead, they need to enact a gas extraction impact fee to pay for the damage to natural resources and communities that drilling causes. Our legislators need to support the impact fee and the Save our Forests legislation (HB 2235), which puts a five year freeze on new deep natural gas drilling leases in state forests.

Come to one of these events to stand up for our forests:

April 14, 12:15 – 12:45 p.m. – Philadelphia
Demonstration to Save Pennsylvania’s Forests
Gov. Rendell’s Southeast Office
200 South Broad Street (near Broad and Walnut).
Join us during your lunch hour as we conduct a fun demonstration with a local arts group to show support our remarkable state forests.

April 15, 12:00 – 2:00 p.m. – Ricketts Glen
Picnic in Ricketts Glen State Park to Save Pennsylvania’s Forests
Rickets Glen State Park Picnic Pavilion #2
695 State Route 487, Benton, PA 17814
Gather your friends and family and join us for a relaxing lunch in the park to show your support for protecting our state forests and to simply enjoy the beauty of Ricketts Glen State Park.

April 17, 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.- Philadelphia
Annual PennFuture Watershed Workshop: Bold Action to Protect Water Quality in Philadelphia and Beyond
Friends Center, 1501 Cherry St, Philadelphia, PA 19102
This workshop will discuss changes Philadelphia is making to ensure the health of our waterways and take a look at Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling, and why it is relevant to local water quality.

April 20, 12:00 – 1:00 p.m.- Pittsburgh
Rally for the Trees to Save Pennsylania’s Forests
Portico steps of the City-County Building, 414 Grant St, Pittsburgh, PA  15219.
Grab your friends and spend your lunch hour showing your support for Pennsylania’s state forests.

April 20, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. – Ohiopyle
Celebrate Our Forests – and learn more about gas drilling
Ohiopyle Stewart Community Center
15 Sherman Street, Ohiopyle, PA 15470
Learn more about natural gas drilling – what it is and what the impacts will be – and share your stories about what our state forests mean to you.  We’ll deliver your stories to elected officials on Earth Day in Harrisburg.

April 22, 10:30 – 11:30 a.m. – Harrisburg
Earth Day Rally to Protect Penn’s Woods
Pennsylvania State Capitol Main Rotunda
Gather your friends, postcards, and signs and join us in a rally encouraging our legislators to protect Penn’s Woods.

Coordinator www.PaForestCoalition.org

Gas Pains….in Frackland

Here’s a new blog by a reporter from Voices in Center County, PA.

Her first post is the article that just came out in the April issue. This article is full of stories from a variety of places in PA and really brings some tough questions to the forfront of what other papers are only skirting around.

http://frackland.wordpress.com/2010/04/01/marcellus-drilling-transforms-the-state/

Heartbreaking Stories Warn New Yorkers of What May Be in Store if the State OKs Controversial Gas Drilling

Written by Maura Stephens

…Most of these Pennsylvanians told us they rue the day they signed the gas leases. Some of them “inherited” gas leases — or bought property on which there was a mineral rights lease they were unaware of — and now are paying the consequences. Their stories were heartbreaking. This is some of what they told us, including several things not mentioned in other articles I’ve read about fracking: 1) There is no longer any privacy on their own property. Posted signs are a thing of the past; there’s no way to guarantee that anyone would pay attention to them. The gas drillers have access to leased land 24/7, 365 days a year, because there is always something to deal with on a gas pad. The land owners no longer have privacy or the ability to walk at will on their own property. One woman told us she and her teenage daughter feel like prisoners in their home. They used to walk around in bathing suits or pajamas in the privacy of their 100-plus-acre farm. That’s no longer an option — they stay inside with the blinds drawn even on nice days because they never know when and where a stranger will be walking around the property. 2) The gas companies can pretty much do as they please. There is no consultation with the landowners about placement or size of the pads, or the numerous roads that have to be cut into the property, or drainage fields, or pond sites, or planned building sites. One farmer, who had dreamed of this since his elder son’s birth in 1983, gave his son and new daughter-in-law three acres on which to build a house, on a lovely corner of his farm. The newlyweds were just about to begin building the home they’d designed when the gas company decided to drill on the very same spot. The family had no way of fighting the gas company, which refused to change its drilling location. The young man and his bride were forced to rent an apartment in town. Subsequently the drilling contaminated the well that provided drinking water to the family and farm animals. And although the site did not yield gas, the land is no longer usable for farming or placing a home. The farmer, incidentally, had bought the land in the early 1980s without realizing a gas company held mineral rights to it via a 1920s lien. 3) The gas companies do not respect the land. The gas companies have in numerous documented cases torn out mature stands of trees — 20, 30, 60, 80 years old — leaving the tree carcasses scattered about the land. “These guys just don’t care,” one landowner told us, close to tears. “They treated my farm like a garbage dump. They moved their bowels in the woods and left their filthy toilet paper behind. They threw all their rubbish around — plastic bottles, McDonald’s bags, you name it. I used to always kept this place manicured. It’s been my pride and joy. But now, it’s a rubbish heap. I’m still finding junk they left around, long after the fracking ended.” 4) There’s light and noise nonstop. “No amount of money can buy you sufficient sleep,” said a farmer. “It’s bright and loud, all the time. Not that I’d sleep anyway. All I do is worry about the land and the water and what we are going to do.” 5) Their property has lost its value. “We can’t drink our water,” said the same farmer. “We can’t reclaim the land. They’re putting my farm out of business. The land is worthless. Nobody would want it, like this.” 6) They can no longer fish in their streams and ponds. So many of these waterways have been poisoned by fracking waste, runoff, spillage, or dumping, that fishers are afraid to eat the fish they catch. One farmer, who told us he’d planned to stock his farm pond with seven varieties of fish that he would raise and sell to other landowners, has lost this income stream because his pond was polluted by fracking. 7) The water is dangerously unsafe. “A primary reason we chose to live in this area,” says a woman from central New York, “is that is has abundant clean water. The western half or two-thirds of the United States, and the Southeast — the entire rest of the country — has precious little water. But we have always had plenty of fresh, safe, available water. Now we are threatened with gas fracturing, or ‘fracking.’ The contaminants released in the fracking process are carcinogenic (cancer-inducing) and even radioactive. Everyone around here depends on our wells for safe drinking water. Now how can we ever drink our water again? City water is no safer.”

To read the full blog, click here

http://chenangogreens.org/home/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=0&Itemid=70&limit=9&limitstart=18

EQT Announces Strategic Marcellus Acreage Acquisition

Here is an interesting report that came to me by way of the Responsible Drilling Alliance (RDA) in Williamsport, PA.

There have been numerous announcements on various websites about  EQT Corp. acquiring acreage for drilling and other gas extraction activities. Most have indicated this acquisition is an outright purchase of the land – rather than a long-term lease. Below is what POGAM (Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Association – an industry alliance) and EQT say about this acquisition. The links for each announcement lead to the full releases from EQT and POGAM.

If EQT’s acquisition is an outright purchase and not a lease, this is appears to be a new (or at least an increasing) way to acquire rights to drill in the Marcellus Shale. And it is something that taxpayers and landowners need to be aware of. If oil and gas companies end up owning large chunks of our state, particularly in places adjacent to privately-owned residential areas, what will be the outcome long-term? Will big oil and gas, out-of-area corporations, care as much as locals do for public health, safety, the environment and the local economy?

If anyone receiving this message can clarify the nature of this EQT acquisition – purchase, lease, something in-between – please send that clarification to me.

EQT’s announcement:

EQT Announces Strategic Marcellus Acreage Acquisition;

Increases EUR per Marcellus Well;

Provides Update on Latest Marcellus Well

PITTSBURGH, March 2, 2010/ PRNewswire-FirstCall/ –EQT Corporation (NYSE: EQT) today

announced that it will acquire approximately 58,000 net acres in the Marcellus Shale from a group

of private operators and landowners. The acreage is located primarily in Cameron, Clearfield, Elk and

Jefferson counties in Pennsylvania. The purchase includes a 200 mile gathering system, with

associated rights of way, and approximately 100 producing vertical wells.

At closing, EQT will pay approximately $280 million, 90% with EQT stock and 10% with cash.

Following the closing of the acquisition, EQT will hold more than 500,000 net acres in the highpressure

Marcellus shale fairway. The company expects the transaction to close by April 30, subject

to customary closing conditions.

“We are pleased to add to our substantial, firmly held acreage position in the heart of the

Marcellus fairway. We have extensive midstream assets and firm contracts to gather and transport

natural gas to the lucrative eastern markets,” commented Murry Gerber, chairman and chief executive

officer. “ ….

To read the full EQT release, click here:

http://www.eqt.com/docs/pdf/pressRelease/20100302.pdf

POGAM’s announcement:

EQT announces Marcellus acreage acquisition, ups per-well production estimate

PITTSBURGH, PA (3/3/2010) – EQT Corporation announced it will acquire approximately 58,000 net acres in the Marcellus Shale from a group of private operators and landowners. The acreage is located primarily in Cameron, Clearfield, Elk and Jefferson counties in Pennsylvania. The purchase includes a 200-mile gathering system, with associated rights of way, and approximately 100 producing vertical wells.

At closing, EQT will pay approximately $280 million, 90 percent with EQT stock and 10 percent with cash. Following the closing of the acquisition, EQT will hold more than 500,000 net acres in the high-pressure Marcellus shale fairway. The company expects the transaction to close by April 30….

To read the full POGAM release, click here:

http://www.pogam.org/news/view.asp?pID=1334

Pipelines are next

There are so many different aspects of the gas and oil industry. At first we worried about the visual issues surrounding the gas drilling. Later we realized that our water and air qualities were at stake and that issue still takes a precedence today. As the production of natural gas progresses in this area we will see some new stages erupting this summer and with them new concerns. Things we have not yet considered because we are still investing all our time and energy into the water battle and some things that we will not know about until they start to happen. The nature of this industry seems to be in secrecy and quick movements, like a tiger, (isn’t that Exxon’s logo?) that make it difficult to see what’s coming head on, like a run away truck on a dark, rainy night.

One thing that has come up in the last months for me has been the pipeline infrastructure.  Did we know drilling for gas entailed pipelines? Sure we did, but I at least did not consider the full effect of this single aspect of natural gas drilling. Here are some links to informative sites and articles that are discussing this topic.

http://rnrext.cas.psu.edu/PDFs/FLWinter2009.pdf

The above link offers some good explanations of pipelines, how and what they are used for and what sort of effects they can have on PA forests.

The fifth story down this page gives some idea as to when this stage may begin and what we might see, at least for Potter County, PA.

http://today.pottercountypa.net/