Next Signing Day – Tuesday, February 26, 2008 – 5:00pm to 8:00pm

Just a reminder about the signing meeting tomorrow.

When: Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Time: 5:00pm to 8:00pm
Where: Pleasantview Baptist Church
Who: All property owners in Neighborhood Group (Green, Red and Blue groups all welcome)

Please bring a copy of your survey showing the lot lines to your property if you have one. Be advised that Paloma does not have the tools to recalculate property acreage size on the spot. They will need to take your unsigned lease packet back to the office to perform the recalculation. I believe they may call you once the recalculation is completed.

If the recalculation is done early enough Paloma should have these recalculated lease packets available to be picked up at the next signing meeting which will be sometime in early March (details forthcoming).

If you wish to complete the transaction before that next signing meeting in early March, you may opt to go to Paloma’s office in Fort Worth to sign your gas lease papers. Just be sure that you have confirmed with Paloma that your lease packet and survey recalculation (if you provided them one) is completed.

A third option is to let Paloma know that you want them to mail your gas lease packet to your mailing address for signing. If you opt for this approach please remember that some of the papers in the lease packet will need to be notarized. Read the instructions carefully.

Arlington gas lease organizers: Add your own group’s boundaries on this Google Map

A while back I created this Google map of some nearby groups and associations that were organizing their respective neighborhoods to negotiate better gas lease deals. Since then, I’ve received several emails from other neighborhood organizers wanting to either add their group’s boundaries to this map or modify existing ones, for example, where two groups have joined forces. I don’t have much time to modify this map any more lately.

Therefore, if any group or homeowner organizer is interested in adding or editing the boundaries of their own group’s area in this map they are welcome do so. Here’s what you need to do:

If you are the group organizer send me an email with

• the group’s name
• the name of the organizer(s)
• the email address of the person you wish to have editing rights
• the name and URL of the group’s website or blog

Send this infomation to arlingtongasdrilling /at/ gmail.com and I will add that person to the Google Map as a collaborator. An email invitation gets sent to you and once you accept, you will have editing rights on the map and you can draw or redraw the boundaries to their specifications.

If you have any questions, email me at the address above.

FAQs in holding pattern

I’m still searching for answers to the questions that you asked this week. I alluded to one of those question in the previous post, i.e., what are signing options for property owners who don’t live nearby or may even live out of state or who may be out of town on signing dates.

I’ve sent a list of questions to Paloma to see if they can provide some answers. As I noted previously, Paloma has many deadlines they are trying to meet around North Texas so I may not get all the answers.

In the end, all of the details of our gas lease deal will be spelled out in an overview document that will be provided by Paloma and which I will link to once it is received. So, regardless of whether I get answers this week or not, the questions you have will, ultimately, be answered. It’s just that due to Paloma’s tight deadlines they may not be answered until we receive the overview document. I just want you to be aware.

I’ll keep on the trail and post answers as they come to me. Thanks for understanding.

No contract signings this week

There will not be any contract signing this week. Initially, Paloma thought they might be able to schedule the first contract signings this week. However, they’ve had to push their schedule back by a few days due to their volume of work and several other hard deadlines that they’ve previously agreed to in other deals they’re involved in around North Texas.

The new first day for our group is tentatively scheduled for February 7, 2008. I want to stress that this date is TENTATIVE. Once Paloma confirms that date, hopefully by week’s end, I will inform you so that you’ll have time to make plans. Don’t worry, once confirmed those dates will be announced here and via email in BIG, BOLD letters!

I appreciate everyone’s understanding that these scheduling issues are somewhat fluid. Sometimes changes in deadlines or schedules with groups that Paloma is trying to wrap up cascade down and affect other groups, such as ours. Paloma has assured us that they are doing all of the preparation work for our group’s signing dates, they just need a bit more time.

Also, I’ve asked Paloma to inform us what options will there be for property owners in our group who either don’t live in the area or will be out of town and may miss the signing dates once they are announced. When I receive an answer to that question I will let everyone know.

Gas Lease FAQs post coming soon

Many of you are asking some good questions. I will be putting up a post with those Questions and Answers, hopefully, by tomorrow sometime. When I do get it posted I will alert our members by email to let them know that this info is available here on the blog.

Repost: Map of NEIGHBORHOOD GROUP area

In case some of you may have missed it in an earlier post, here is a map that roughly outlines the boundaries of our group’s area.

NEIGHBORHOOD GROUP area map

Map of nearby neighborhood groups

You might find it interesting to see what other neighborhood alliances have formed in the south Arlington area to negotiate gas lease deals. Here is a map I created with the general boundaries of those groups. Much of this information was gleaned from the Barnett Shale Blog.

Map of SW Arlington neighborhood alliances (not a complete list)

Also, here a map of the general boundaries of our own group’s area.

Map of NEIGHBORHOOD GROUP area

Membership in NEIGHBORHOOD GROUP will be closing next week

Now that a tentative agreement with Paloma Resources has been reached, we need to finalize our member count.   If you live within the Neighborhood Group boundaries and are not a member of our group yet (as well as have not already signed a gas lease as an individual) you will need to have your information turned in by next Thursday, January 17, 2008 at the latest.  No exceptions.  After that, membership is closed.

If you know of someone who is still sitting on the fence, please advise them that time is running out.  All they need to do is a) download the Neighborhood Group member info sheet b) fill it out and sign it and c) get that information turned into to Bob Haelle at the address on the sheet. (Note: don’t mail this form if there is a chance it might not arrive before next Thursday).  This form does not bind you to anything.  It is just a form that states to Paloma that you wish to be considered as a part of our group in this gas lease arrangement. 

You are free to sign with anyone you please but if you decide to do so you are doing outside of our group’s purview and acting and negotiating as an individual.  In order to receive the contract considerations that are being negotiated, you must be on our roster as part of our group by next Thursday.   Good luck.

Tentative deal reached with Paloma Resources

The NEIGHBORHOOD GROUP Negotiation Committee, after careful consideration voted unanimously, to enter into a gas lease agreement with Paloma Resources.  An offer has been made which matches the highest offers seen in Arlington – $16,850 per acre.  

The details of the lease agreement will be discussed at a general neighborhood meeting that will likely take place sometime this upcoming week.   Currently, there is no date set but Bob Haelle is coordinating that effort and we will advise you ASAP both via email and this blog. 

Many well-deserved thanks go out to the wonderful members of our group who were patient and diligent in staying the course in the face pressure to opt for a quick settlement.    This could have never been done without your support.  Look for more posts and email very soon.

Recent offers in and around Arlington

I did a little digging around to see what were some of the gas lease offers which some areas and neighborhoods in and around Arlingtion had received.   Here are a few of the offers that have been reached so far (sorted from earliest to most recent):

       AREA/GROUP                 SIGNING BONUS     ROYALTY 
PANTEGO/WEST ARLINGTON            $15,000/ACRE        25% 
DALWORTHINGTON GARDENS            $15,311/ACRE        28% 
WOODLANDS WEST (ARLINGTON)        $15,500/ACRE        25% 
UNITED NEIGHBORS (ARLINGTON)      $15,850/ACRE        25% 
SW ARLINGTON PROPTY. OWNERS       $16,850/ACRE        25% 
PLEASANT RIDGE UNITED (ARLINGTON) $16,850/ACRE        25%

Notice the upward trend of the signing bonus.   This is a positive sign for our efforts as well.   Please check back later for more updates.   Alternatively, you can sign up to get updated via email by clicking the link in the upper left column.  Or you can plug the RSS feed into your feed reader.