Fleecing the landowner never becomes extinct.  There have been some vertical Rose Run wells drilled in our area, but they haven't lasted long and they are now using them as storage.  We knew that someday they would figure a way to drill deeper for more gas of some sort, but we had no idea of the shale deposits already discovered as in the article** and intend to do more research as to what might be under us (looks like the devonian layer), even if it is for our great grandchildren's sake only.  http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/earth/4318390.html **

 

Our land carries a 1971 forever lease that has no provision for any royalty on natural gas, only oil, and no permission needed by landowner.  Supposedly, according to the lease they already paid the original lessor for the value of all gas under the property.  Right.  Columbia Gas Transmission is poking 19 additional storage wells in our area this year on the largest acreages in the primest locations and our land is included in this project, but we have fought them off so far by building a barn close to their stake.  They claimed to FERC that they had a lease without limitation or restrictions.  The lease is written so that they can possess, use and occupy all of our land for their purposes and assign these rights.  They can drill a hundred wells on our property and make the entire acreage unusable to us.  Ohio has no minimum spacing requirements for storage wells.  The lease reads they cannot drill a well within 300' of our dwelling or barn, but there is nothing in the lease that stops them from destroying our home or buildings first, so we are waiting on their next move.  We have told them we would talk to them about drilling that second well on our property conditioned upon, basically, all other formations granted back to us, free gas on the second well, and increase of the $200 annual well rental payment to reflect inflation, plus real compensation for the 10 acres of woods they want to clear and keep cleared.  They deny that trees are a "growing crop" (lease terms for damages to be paid) or have any aesthetic value and will not allow any value for trees.  They will only cut them down for us.  We are in for a long-term battle and if they drill anyway, we will have to sue them for damages in federal court.  They have no intention of re-writing the lease and so we will also sue them for unconscionability of the lease.  Now we have additional reason knowing of the shale and horizontal drilling.

 

Thank you for this info.  Surely, we can band people together here if the shale drilling ever starts here.  That would be an enormous sum of cash leaving our area for no compensation, as all the land is leased to Columbia and most have the same lease as ours.  This is no different than the timber and coal companies raping the Appalachian Mountains in the early 1900's and leaving the people there indebted and broke.

 

We have used the northern Ohio explosion and water contamination case in our FERC filings, but so far, FERC will not force Columbia to test any water sources on a leased property unless a well is within 150' of the drilling.  We pointed out that this is plainly absurd. 

 

We predict that Columbia and maybe even parent company Nisource will declare bankruptcy after withdrawing all profit transferred to an offshore bank and then the American people will be expected to bail them out because their business is "green" and necessary to the public welfare or some excuse like that. 

 

In FERC's order for approval of the project, they were told the only location that was acceptable was the one that was staked.  Three days before the issuance of that order we notified FERC that there was a barn within 300' of that location and that the lease clearly states they cannot drill a well within 300' of a barn without the landowner's written consent.  So, when Columbia asked for authority to proceed with construction on all the new wells, FERC told them "NO" on ours until they complied with environmental condition 5., which is that, in order to relocate a well they have to get written consent from us.  In the meantime, we filed a motion for rehearing challenging all the lies that Columbia had told FERC throughout the project in order to get a certificate issued.  Columbia certainly didn't like that.  Now they have sent FERC this letter, basically, demanding to be given permission to start construction on our property and apparently, authority to destroy our barn, because they painted and flagged the  trees surrounding our barn after the barn was in place!

 

We are preparing a NOTICE OF ENCROACHMENT to Columbia and another filing with FERC which we expect to mail on Wednesday after review by our attorney.  I'll try and remember to send you a copy.  It might help others to understand the arrogance of oil and gas companies.  All of our filings can be viewed by the public at www.ferc.gov - advanced search - docket cp08-431 - dates 1/1/08-present date.  Maybe you have heard about another ongoing fight up north, see docket cp08-78.  They are trying to steal native gas from these landowners who don't even have a lease.

 

We are fighting for our rights (which are unfortunately, practically none) and eventual complete destruction of our land under these unconscionable leases.  We don't expect them to change ours or anyone else's lease voluntarily, so if they feel threatened enough that we will take them to court and could win, they might end up seeing this whole situation our way.  The best outcome, of course, would be that we would go to court and win unconscionability and everyone else would benefit too.  Stay tuned for the next episode!

 

Thanks again and please keep the info coming!

Charles and Melanie Ogle

Rockbridge, Ohio