Gas Leases

A packed Tunkhannock Area High School auditorium buzzed on Wednesday evening with one topic: natural-gas lease profits.

The rush is on in western Wyoming County, with the Wyoming County Landowners’ Group and its more than 45,000 acres in the gas-filled Marcellus Shale region recently accepting a lease agreement with the Unit and Citrus oil and gas drilling companies.

Landowners signed for $2,850 per acre sign-on bonuses, minus consultant payments, for five-year leases with 17 percent drilling royalties. If the lands aren’t drilled within five years, there are two one-year extensions each for $1,000 per acre.

The deal was brokered by Jack Sordoni and Chris Robinson, both oil and gas drillers in western Pennsylvania. The terms of the lease provide them with 15 percent of the $590-per-acre sign-on bonus increase they brokered from the $2,260 per acre the land group initially negotiated.

Earlier in the evening in Noxen Township, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to sign on, leasing 118 acres from four parcels with Robinson’s deal, Chairman Carl Shook said.

“It’s going to make a lot of people a lot of money,” he said.

Beyond general maintenance, repairs and renovations to township facilities and installing a town sign, it’s unclear how the money will be used.

Another deal is expected before Labor Day for landowners in Mehoopany, Meshoppen, Braintrim and Washington municipalities, Robinson said.

Sordoni said a letter of intent is on the way from an oil company interested in eastern Wyoming County municipalities. They refused to name the company with the new letter because they didn’t want people to break off and contact the company separately.

[Via The Times Leader]