Hey man, it's good to hear from you this morning. The well they are drilling outback is the Nelson 18-H-1, it is owned by the John Nelson family, which everyone around here and probably down your way too knows. They are just regular country folks but at one time the family owned almost all of section 18, and still own a large part of it. They apparently leased a couple of years ago and Chesapeake bought the lease from some smaller company and jumped on drilling since it JUST HAPPENED to be right in the middle of this thing. They got off cheap on upfront money but the family will no doubt be richer soon. I thought the over 6000 ft sounded like a long horizontal too, but in their recent webcast, the CEO of CHK said they have already discovered that longer is better in the HS and that they will go several thousand feet in all future wells and will frac at least 6, 8 or mores areas in each well; according to their stats this increases the well's production from 4-5 mcf to 12-16 mcf in EVERY well they tried it in so far, so I say shoot on man.
I know there are alot of folks all over N.LA that did just like you, and I probably would have to at the time if I would have had more land because 100-200 was the normal going price, but fret not, just look around on this site at some of the calculations some of the oilmen on here have made and you'll see that the royalties will catch you up on what you missed on the bonus. One guy figured at just 4 mcf and & 8.50 a mcf and I think 20% for just 1 acre and it came to $12.50 per day, then times 365, so with most of these wells projected at 3-4 times that daily, it'll add up. Then times your 120 acres, and also CHK said that they will be drilling 8 wells to a section, so then times 8, and you can get rich quick! I put it to a calculator and it was unbelieveable.
I'm glad to hear that Jeff is OK, I would like to be able to hear from him and see him and he has a beautiful neice that just got married who had NO family members at her wedding that would like to hear from him too. Man, mine and his and HD's situation has just got sadder and worse over the years and I try to not let it bother me, but it's hard not to at times. I know mama would be devestated by it all but I can't do much to change them, I go to church 3 times a week and serve as an usher and work hard and try to live right and I pray for them daily but the Word says to love and try to help your brother but if they refuse to accept and choose to be ignorant, then let them be ignorant, but don't let it stop you from believing and serving and that is what I have to try to do.
Take care, I have to head to work, I'll check in later.