Loyalsock State Forest Development Plan Released
Morgan Myers Williamsport Sun-Gazette October 16, 2013
The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Tuesday released Anadarko Petroleum Corp.’s development plan for the Clarence Moore tract of the Loyalsock State Forest following a Right-To-Know Law request from the environmental group PennFuture.
“The proposal is more than a year old and does not in any way reflect a final decision or plan for the 25,000 acres known as the Clarence Moore lands,” DCNR Press Secretary Christina Novak said Oct. 15.
The …
Special Report: U.S. Builders Hoard Mineral Rights Under New Homes
Reuters Special Report Wed Oct 9, 2013
Robert and Julie Davidson fell hard for the gleaming new house at the Valencia Golf and Country Club in Naples, Florida. They loved the way the palm-fringed, Spanish-style home backed up to the fifth-hole fairway. And they were taken with the three-bedroom’s high ceilings and open plan. Plus the neighborhood – with its power-washed driveways, blooming hibiscus and guarded gatehouse – seemed all “dressed up.”
But when the Davidsons paid $255,385 in 2011 for …
Court Affirms That Surface Rights Owners, Even Uncle Sam, Are Subservient
Zack Needles The Legal Intelligencer October 7, 2013
Pennsylvania energy attorneys said a recent appeals ruling restricting the U.S. Forest Service’s regulatory authority over drilling in the Allegheny National Forest reaffirms the long-standing legal tenet that mineral rights owners have primacy over surface owners — and could apply more broadly to other federally owned land.
Other attorneys said the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruling also provides guidance as to when the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, which …
Corbett Signs Controversial Bill Giving Drillers Power To Pool Leases
Marie Cusick StateImpact PA July 9, 2013
Governor Corbett signed a controversial bill into law today, giving drillers the power to combine or “pool” leases for horizontal oil and gas drilling.
The legislation was originally promoted as an effort to bring more transparency to the deductions companies take out of royalty payments. Complaints over those deductions lead to a recent Senate hearing on the issue.
An organization representing Pennsylvania’s mineral owners was angered over language added later on, which allows …
Two Companies Pull Out of PA Natural Gas Leases
Sandy Bauers Philadelphia Inquirer July 17, 2013
The two major companies that had sought to drill for natural gas in northeastern Pennsylvania within the Delaware River Basin are pulling out, nixing $187.5 million in lease payments that landowners had hoped to get.
Landowners and businesses in Wayne County who had leased more than 100,000 acres to the companies in 2009 began receiving notices late last week that the leases they had with Newfield Appalachia PA L.L.C. and Hess Corp. were …
Corbett Signs Controversial Bill Giving Drillers Power To Pool Leases
Marie Cusick StateImpact Pennsylvania July 9, 2013
Governor Corbett signed a controversial bill into law today, giving drillers the power to combine or “pool” leases for horizontal oil and gas drilling.
The legislation was originally promoted as an effort to bring more transparency to the deductions companies take out of royalty payments. Complaints over those deductions lead to a recent Senate hearing on the issue.
An organization representing Pennsylvania’s mineral owners was angered …
Pa. House Bill Would Let Drillers Pool Land
Timothy Puko Pittsburgh Tribune-Review June 30, 2013
The state House passed a bill Friday evening that would make it easier for drilling companies to pool land into drilling units, angering some advocates who believe it undercuts landowners’ rights.
The bill could have its biggest effect in Western Pennsylvania, where many people hold oil and gas leases signed decades before the shale drilling boom, experts said. They can often try to block drilling or negotiate better terms because their contracts don’t …
Bradford County Landowners Accuse Chesapeake Of Underpaying Royalties
Marie Cusick StateImpact PA June 17, 2013
Listen: Chesapeake Royalty Payments Click here to listen to StateImpact Pennsylvania’s audio report
It’s not easy to find Mary Jane Foelster’s home.
“We wanted the peace and quiet,” she says. “It’s just wonderful out here.”
Her home sits on 50 acres tucked away down a 1.7 mile dirt road in Bradford County. It’s as far north as you can go in Pennsylvania before crossing the border into New York.
The property is surrounded …
Controversy in the Loyalsock
Mark Szybist Staff Attorney PennFuture
What are the Clarence Moore Lands?
The Clarence Moore lands are 25,621 acres of “split estate” lands in the Loyalsock State Forest where the surface rights are owned by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the oil and gas rights are owned by two private parties – an affiliate of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (Anadarko) and a private company called International Development Corporation (IDC). The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) calls this …
PA Landowners Can Get Cash On Spot For Mineral Rights
Erich Schwartzel Pittsburgh Post-Gazette May 20, 2013
You’ve heard of house flipping. Now, lease flipping has come to Pennsylvania’s natural gas fields.
A wave of investment firms hoping to cash in on drilling in the Marcellus Shale is appearing in deed books across the region. They operate much like traditional land agents, negotiating with landowners to secure rights to the lucrative shale gas underneath the acreage.
The difference? The landowners have already leased access to the land to gas drillers, …
