Council members in Edensburg, Pennsylvania are being smart when considering gas & oil leases on borough owned land:
Borough officials want to hear about the experience of others before agreeing to lease the gas and oil rights on borough-owned land.
“It’s like playing the stock market,” borough Manager Dan Penatzer said.
“You have to guess as to whether, or when, it’s the best time to sell or lease,” he told council members at their meeting Monday.
The Ebensburg council members and the municipal authority are currently meeting with Western Land Services of Ludington, Mich., one of the several oil & gas companies looking to lease land for gas and oil well drilling from Pennsylvania farmers and land owners.
Competition for oil and gas leases in Somerset and Cambria counties is the most competitive it has been in 20 years because of the recently discovered 6,000-foot-deep Marcellus Shale, an untapped reservoir of natural gas.
This article also reiterates some of the smart tips released by Pennsylvania state officials over the last few months:
- Lease payments are negotiable, with annual rentals ranging from a few dollars to hundreds of dollars per acre.
- Royalty amounts are negotiable, with the minimum in Pennsylvania set by law at one-eighth of the value of the produced oil or gas.
- Write into a lease agreement protections necessary for crops, livestock, buildings and personal property.
- Gas wells cannot be closer than 1,000 feet apart.