Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Les Bamburg on July 23, 2008 at 16:49

Jack, my opinion is a large timber company will cut its own deal for all the acreage and will not bother with private land owners. Would you mind sharing the parish your land is located?

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Permalink Reply by Thomas T. Thomas on July 24, 2008 at 2:50

I might be mistaken, but I think you can only be force pooled in your drilling unit. Drilling units in Louisiana are your 640 acre sectioin, therefore the other sections in your township would be irrelevant. If the timber company leases the majority of your section then it is possible that you can be force pooled. Even in that case the O&G company would rather lease your land than pay you 100% royalty so it would actually help your bonus price.

-T. T. T.

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Permalink Reply by Les Bamburg on July 24, 2008 at 3:51

Thomas, it is not 100% "royalty" but 100% revenue less drilling and operating costs.

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Permalink Reply by Jack Spratt on July 24, 2008 at 4:21

Les , Thomas,

My land is in Natchitoches Parish. I've read on other threads (about Forced Pooling) speculation that the state may approve drilling units consisting of 2 to 5 sections. If this happens, the O&G's will secure my entire township without signing a single private landowner! More than half of the land here is owned by timber companies.

JS

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Permalink Reply by Thomas T. Thomas on July 24, 2008 at 5:47

Les, you're right thanks for the correction.

Jack, the O&G companies want to lease you because they don't make any money by force pooling you. I wouldn't believe drilling units that big until I saw it in writing from the state I think that is just speculation at this point. Haynesville wells can only drill 60 to 80 acres which is not big enough to merit a law change (in my uninformed opinion).

-T.T.T.

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Permalink Reply by The_Baron on July 25, 2008 at 10:05

Wells can be drilled on 40 to 80 acre "spacing" the Unit is still going to be 640 acres or maybe even larger (Chesapeake wants some to be 1280 acre units).

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Permalink Reply by Les Bamburg on July 25, 2008 at 8:28

Jack, I have not seen any conservatory (geographic) units larger than 640 acres. There are "voluntary" units implemented, primarily in South Louisiana, that cover an entire producing field. These are normally done for oil fields with gas caps or fields being produced with enhanced recovery techniques (pressure maintenance, CO2 flood, etc). I do not anticipate this for the Haynesville Shale and I do not think it would get approved.

By the way, I am also watching for timber companies cutting deals in Natchitoches & Red River Parishes.

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Permalink Reply by The_Baron on July 25, 2008 at 10:07

The units in South LA are geologic units based off of available knowledge of the formation. North LA uses geographic units.

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Permalink Reply by herefordsnshale on July 24, 2008 at 11:41

Red River Timberlands (formerly International Paper and Timberstar) owns almost 3/4 of the section where my land is. KCS/Petrohawk still approached all the private landowners in the remaining area about leasing. We were offered the going rate at the time. Most timber company land has been sold off now to private investment groups (Red River Timberlands is owned by the John Hancock Insurance company). As to getting them to ally with private individuals, I don't know, these investment groups are kind of odd, they might or might not.

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