Gas Leases

XTO Energy, which has locked up six potential drilling sites in Northeast Tarrant County, struck a deal this week with one of the holdout groups in that area for a signing bonus of $20,000 an acre.

The Hidden Lakes neighborhood of Keller, which includes 1,800 property owners on about 700 acres, has agreed to a three-year lease that will pay a 25 percent royalty. It includes an option for another two years for another bonus of $20,000.

Dale Resources, representing Chesapeake Energy, was competing for property owners in that area, said Deborah Gatzke, the leader of Hidden Lakes. Both Chesapeake and XTO were “stuck” on bonus offers of $18,500 for about six weeks, she said.

She said she doesn’t know why the offers weren’t as high as in other parts of Tarrant County, where property owners are seeing signing bonuses higher than $25,000 per acre and royalties greater than 25 percent.

“They were both successful in convincing us that maybe the Barnett Shale in our area might not be worth that,” Gatzke said.

Many of XTO’s six drilling sites could overlap a bulk of Chesapeake’s proposed sites, according to maps compiled by the Colleyville Area Mineral Rights Association, which is one of the largest groups in Northeast Tarrant County still holding out for a better deal.

CAMRA says it’s obtained a map from XTO that shows six proposed drilling sites scattered throughout the area. A total of 10 drilling sites from XTO and Chesapeake could reach CAMRA property owners, said Grady Walker, a spokesman for CAMRA. In addition, the group is willing to offer up to two additional drilling sites within its boundaries that have not been leased by the drilling companies, he said.

Walker said he’s trying to get the two drilling companies to “get in the sandbox and play together and divide up all the toys.”

“When push comes to shove, there are resources under the ground and they’re going to work it out,” Walker said. “It’s not something they’re going out after initially. That’s because they want to divide up all of the areas until it gets to the point where they really need to pull it together.”

[Via The Star Telegram]