Gas Leases

Broome landowners holding the keys to lucrative natural gas fields could lose out if they don’t know their rights.

That message will be brought home once again Sept. 17, when landowners will be schooled on natural gas issues by the state attorney general’s office during a seminar at Broome Community College.

The seminar on wheeling, dealing and ethical conduct comes as more stakeholders seek a claim in the prospective multi-billion dollar natural gas rush taking shape in the back yards of local residents.

Mike Danaher, assistant attorney general in the Binghamton office, will offer advice that generally carries this theme: Don’t get pressured into making a deal you are unhappy with. It’s your property.

If landowners have regrets after signing a lease, they have three days to cancel a contract.

And above all, landowners should draw up a lease that suits them, rather than accepting a lease that favors the energy company, he said.

“Landowners may be told ‘this is a standard industry lease,’ but each lease is unique,” he said.

Many advocates are urging property owners to build environmental safeguards into the terms of the lease, such as conditions for water testing and waste disposal, rather than counting on state regulators to deal with problems as they come up.

The rush to lease property, called a “land play,” is vastly different than drilling in parts of the Southern Tier in years past, when landowners were typically offered between $5 and $200 an acre for mineral rights with 12.5 percent royalties. Back then, the target was the Trenton Black River Formation.

New technology, high energy prices and growing demand is driving the development of the Marcellus Shale Formation, which is vastly larger than the Trenton. The stakes have grown. Area property owners are now receiving offers between $1,000 and $5,000 an acre with 15 to 20 percent royalties. Unlike the Trenton, which holds isolated pools of gas, the Marcellus gas reaches under most of Greater Binghamton, so many more property owners have a stake in its development.

Danaher’s advice: “Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate … Don’t be blinded by the dollar signs.”

The seminar, sponsored by Assemblywoman Donna A. Lupardo, D-Endwell, also will include a presentation from Lindsay Wickham, an advocate who works for the New York State Farm Bureau. It is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. in Baldwin Gymnasium.