If you watched that "60 minute" show on gas drilling, be aware

that here in rural west PA, if someone makes more than $50 a month from their gas well, you can hear them cheering clean across the holler. I don't know where those "shalenaires" are but around here a gas well doesn't even pay off your property taxes.

$3500 to $4000 per acre and a percentage of the gas the well produces. Are you talking about the old wells that have been here for decades or the new Marcellus shale wells? I have an uncle that sold his 88 acres in the northern panhandle of WV for $3500 an acre for $308,000. Another friend of mine got $4000 an acre for his place just outside of Wheeling, WV. We have been hearing recently that the gas may even be worth more because there is another deeper shale called Utica that may produce twice as much gas. They are drilling a well near me in Ohio that they plan on drilling 13,000-14,000 feet. I have a 1/16 share in one of those old wells that I get about $80 a year for.

and I wish the best for you. We all need the money (I get some royalty payments also) but where we live it's standard oil drilling. Fracking is a dangerous operation. The more we find out about it the worse it seems.

We need oil/natural gas to drive but we need water to live. Mess up those aquifers and we're all screwed. As someone who grew up in the "oil patch" all I can say is NEVER trust an oil man! They make horse traders look honest.

if they lose their well water. It's a very rural area and there is no chance of getting any kind of city water supply either, they will be up s--- creek.

After the oil slows then comes the fracking. Luckily on our land we don't have any operating wells but we all share the same aquifer. We've had one of the finest sandstone leached wells you've ever drank from. If that goes we're screwed.

Don't know if I've ever read anything that is more right on, ever.
I plan to keep that saying close for further use
Hope U don't mind :hi:

in my neighborhood. They all produce but the company says it just doesn't need the gas yet. No market. The property owners only get paid for what the company can sell. It wasn't like there was a shortage of natural gas around here in the first place. So why did they drill so many wells if they didn't need the gas? I'm sure there just setting up for the future. In the meantime they oversell how much money you're going to make, but people are catching on around here.

so they want to get all the wells in now while the coast is clear then they'll get grandfathered in and be set until the gas runs out.

"NEVER trust an oil man! They make horse traders look honest." --XOKCowboy

negotiator that was well versed in gas and oil drilling since they were in Louisiana. LA has a long history and a lot of people that knew others that were cheated on oil wells.

Still no amount of money will replace their water and health or that of their neighbors. Hope they don't let any of the grandkids hang around too long.

Nice spin, eh?

See, fracking's a good thing.

:sarcasm:


POSTED: NOV. 14, 2010

Energy exploration means big bucks for state parks
BY TINA LAM
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER


Intense interest by gas and oil companies in northern Michigan's shale formations may or may not turn into a boom, but it definitely means a huge windfall for state parks.

The state Natural Resources Trust Fund, which helps state and local governments buy land for parks, got a whopping $113-million infusion from an auction in May of oil and gas leases on state land. It will get several million dollars more from a second auction at the end of October.

That's probably enough to put the fund at its $500-million legal cap; after that, the money goes into the State Parks Endowment Fund, which pays for capital improvements and operations at the state's 98 parks.

The two auctions together brought in $188 million, nearly as much in a single year as the combined total revenue from all such auctions dating to 1929. The Natural Resources Trust Fund has funded the purchase of thousands of acres of parks by state and local governments. Through complex formulas, some money also goes to the Game and Fish Trust Fund for wildlife habitat and conservation officers.

Once the fund hits its legal cap later this year or early next year, future oil and gas revenues will go to the State Parks Endowment Fund. The parks haven't gotten general fund money since 2004 and rely on about $11 million annually in entrance and camping fees. A program that started Oct. 1 for citizens to buy a $10 park passport with their car license renewals is expected to bring in another $30 million or more per year.

more...

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101114/NEWS05/11140535/Energy-exploration-means-big-bucks-for-state-parks&template=fullarticle

i wonder where the rust and bible belts will get water when fracking has polluted their aquifers. and the greed never ends.

ellen fl

there is nothing good..it destroys towns,peoples properties etc...It has very little to do with saving us from OPEC oil and a whole lot to do with profits for companies like Halliburton.The way I saw it CBS did more to patronize the natural gas exploring companies when they could have done more to emphasize what this "shale drilling" was doing to personal lives.. CBS did not go far enough to explain what it was doing to water supply,lakes and rivers all across the country..
Go to http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/60minutes/main3415.shtml and read some of the comments from people in PA..It needs to be stopped ...
I remember a documentary I saw months ago about hydrolic fracking in Colorado and other western states and I agree this has to stop

more benign chemicals used or whatever its called. I know one of the ingredients is sand but I read mention of other harmful chemicals. So why don't the government make them do this in a way that is not harmful, I'm sure it can be done if not then not let them at all. I mean we're talking about WATER here, without it you live maybe 5 days most. Many will die before the 5 day passes so this is serious.

Add: I wished I'd thought to record last nights show but I had to watch the ball game, you know they are so important and everything and all :-)