September 5, 2008

Educational Meeting on Oil & Gas Leasing in Bridgeport ~ Monday, September 8, 2008

WV SORO & the West Virginia Farm Bureau (WVFB) are co-hosting an educational meeting oil & gas leasing
Monday, September 8, 2008 at 7:00PM
Bridgeport High School Auditorium
 
The meeting will focus on oil & gas leasing for those who are considering leasing their minerals and want to know about the limited protections they will have unless they negotiate them into their lease. A panel, including an attorney and experienced well driller, will answer questions following a short presentation on does & don'ts when leasing your minerals. The meeting will provide mineral owners with information on bad provisions in leases and discuss additional protections that landowners can insist on before signing a lease. Click here for directions.

Educational Meeting on Surface Owners' Rights and Oil & Gas Leasing ~ Thursday, September 25, 2008

Delegate Mary Poling (D-Barbour), a sponsor of our Surface Owners' Bill of Rights has invited representatives of WV SORO and WVFB to give presentations at an educational meeting on surface owners' rights and oil & gas leasing in Barbour County.

Thursday, September 25, 2008 at 6:30PM
Philip Barbour High School near Phillipi
Map & Directions

Update on Legislative Interim Meetings

Two weeks ago, at the August legislative interim meetings, Subcommittee A of the Joint Judiciary Committee heard presentations from WV SORO and the industry on existing laws and regulations for oil & gas drilling and how they should be updated to improve protection of both the public interest and the varying interests of surface owners. Although only half of the committee was in attendance for the presentations, our point of view, presented by Dave McMahon, was well received by the members who were there.  Several members left after Dave's presentation and were not there to hear the industry's presenters, who stated there really wasn't a problem, that landowners are treated fairly and that the legislature should give careful consider the "economic and practical impacts" of "radical" changes proposed in the Surface Owners' Bill of Rights. 

Although the industry representatives recited a litany of statistics on jobs and taxes paid, they gave no hard figures as to what the bill might cost them or specific provisions they found objectionable, other than to say that requiring the driller to offer the surface owner residential gas service, at cost, from the wells on their land was problematic claiming it would make the driller a public utility and too much trouble to meet the expectations of gas users.  We have responded to many of the industry's arguments in our Myths & Facts About the Surface Owners' Bill of Rights and will have more to report on this and the September interim meetings in Bridgeport in our next newsletter. 

During the September interims (September 7, 8 &9) the industry will be taking members of Subcommittee A to visit a Marcellus well site, where they are in the process of drilling, and to a "reclaimed" well site.  In addition, the Joint Legislative Oversight Commission on State Water Resources will be hearing presentations on water use and environmental concerns associated with drilling activity into the Marcellus Shale formation.