Webinar Planned On Trends In Natural Gas Leasing, Related Issues

Trends in Marcellus Shale natural-gas leases, royalties and production will be discussed by experts in an internet-based seminar on Thursday, April 21, sponsored by Penn State Cooperative Extension. Presenters will be attorneys Les Greevy of Williamsport and Kris Vanderman of Charleroi, who represent clients with natural-gas interests. The one-hour webinar will start at 1 pm. A question-and-answer period is scheduled at the conclusion of the speakers’ presentations.

“We have been dealing with issues such as going from the lease stage to the production stage, estate planning, protecting assets and tax issues,” Greevy said. “A lot of leases are starting to run out, so we are starting a whole new cycle of leases. We’ll be discussing that, as well as pipeline-property issues and trends in contract addenda, royalty payments and cash-bonus payments . . . Companies have largely staked out geographic areas that they’re interested in and are not competing quite as much, and as a result, prices are down a little, and the ability to get protective addenda in leases is diminished,” Greevy added.

Vanderman, whose firm represents only individuals and groups with land to lease, has seen similar trends in the state’s southwestern corner. “Right now, there is an active swapping of leases between companies, and they are carving out their territories,” he said. “You have companies that are more or less dominant in areas, and this consolidation of territory by lease swaps or farm-out agreements is ongoing.” Vanderman indicated that companies from out-of-state now appear less flexible than they had been when the Marcellus play was newer in Pennsylvania.

“Some of the newest ‘standard offer’ leases are extraordinarily — even dramatically — favorable to the interests of the lessee gas companies,” Vanderman said “The issue here is, what is a landowner willing to concede for money?”

He’ll discuss environmental progress that has been made voluntarily by operators in the southwest part of the state, including on-site water treatment systems, recycling of flowback water from fracking operations, and installation of underground water-piping systems to remove truck traffic from the roads.

Information about how to register for the webinar is available on Penn State Extension natural-gas website; click here (click on Quick Links/Webinars). The registration process requires establishment of an ID/password and can be somewhat time-consuming, so those planning to participate should leave enough time to sign in.

Previous webinars, publications and information on topics such as water use and quality, zoning, gas-leasing considerations for landowners and implications for local communities also are available on the website. For more information, contact John Turack at 724-837-1402 or jdt15@psu.edu