378 W. Chestnut St.
Suite 104
Washington, PA 15301
ph: 740-576-0341
fax: 786-214-3395
markm
Q. What does a “Non-Surface” Lease mean?
A non-Surface lease protects the landowner from ever having an oil/gas company conduct any operation at all on his/her property. The only thing that the lease allows the drilling company to do is drill horizontally underneath their property in which case they are 8,000 feet below the surface—over a mile down. A non-surface lease immensely limits the amount of disturbance an operator can bestow on a landowner.
Q. How long is the lease for?
The lease is a 5 year lease. If an operator drills a well and you are put into a unit, the lease immediately kicks into what is called a “secondary term” which lasts for as long as a well is producing and you are receiving royalty checks. If no well is drilled within 5 years there is an option to extend the lease for another 5 years upon another payment to landowner equal to the first one.
Q. What is a royalty check? How does it work?
The royalty check is the landowners compensation calculated based on how much oil and gas is brought to the surface and hooked into sales. Each landowner will receive his proportion of the unit’s 15% royalty. For example, if you own 20 acres and there are 200 acres in the unit then you would receive 1/10 of the 15%. Don’t let the small fractions miss-lead you—landowners stand to make much more money off their royalty check payments than they do from their initial signing bonuses especially since Utica wells are estimated to last for 30-40 years. Pleasant View Management has the relationships in place necessary to get landowners into units quickly and assign leases to operators that are going to drill the most amount of wells.
Q. What is a “Market Enhancement Clause”?
This clause protects the landowner from deductions being taken out of his/her royalty for costs that do not directly improve the price of gas. Landowners bear none of the post production costs except for the ones that are going to make gas sell at a higher price such as dehydration and compression. Landowners do not bear the cost of gathering or transportation.
Q. Is there a chance the structure of my property could be damaged?
No. The drill bit used to drill these wells is less than a foot in diameter and operates over a mile beneath the surface. The drilling is simply too small and too far away to be capable of having any affect whatsoever on the structure of your property.
Q. Is my water going to be damaged?
No. Pleasant View Management only assigns their landowner leases to operators that are on the forefront in regards to environmental safety standards and companies that have a proven track record of conducting DEP and/or ODNR approved procedures. Protection of the property owner’s land is our number one priority and is the first thing we take into consideration when deciding which company to assign these leases to. All of our leases have a “Water Protection Clause” that protects the landowner from bearing any of the responsibility IF water is contaminated and holds the oil/gas operator 100% liable for any problems with water. The lease holds the gas/oil operator responsible for compensating the landowner if anything should happen to the water. Pleasant View Management also requires that the operator’s conduct water testing before, during, and after a well is drilled for properties within 1,000 feet of a drilling site. Pleasant View Management has a track record of having 0 problems thus far with water contamination for landowner’s.
Q. What do I do with these documents?
Please do not hesitate to pick up the phone and give me a call if there are any specific questions that you come up with as you review your documents. Our goal is for you to be comfortable with what is going on in the area and comfortable with what you are signing. Once you are prepared to submit your lease, you will need to have your documents notarized. We have a notary at our office in St. Clairsville(address on business card) 7 days a week and you are always welcomed to stop by whenever it is convenient for you. Just give us a call an hour before you want to come by and we will be sure to have someone there to notarize your documents and answer any last minutes questions you might have. If necessary, we also have set up accounts with notaries in the area who can travel to your house and notarize the documents at your home. Once the documents are signed and notarized just put them in the return envelope and you are done. We have made the process as simple and convenient as we could for you.
Copyright 2011 Pleasant View Management Ohio. All rights reserved.
378 W. Chestnut St.
Suite 104
Washington, PA 15301
ph: 740-576-0341
fax: 786-214-3395
markm