Fields. Plays. Gushers and Dusters. Wildcat wells. These words, spoken by the educators from the Penn State Cooperative Extension at their informative meeting on natural gas leasing, describe the dicey and exciting world of mineral prospecting. They sound as romantic as the cuirasses and dolopes of knights and nobles from ages past, and conjure upmuch the same associations; wealth and easy living that comes not from work, but instead right from the earth. And the earth in question could be found right here in Wayne County, if local landowners choose to sign leases for their natural gas rights and take a chance on striking it rich.
“If you’re asking my personal bias, I’m for leasing.” These were the words Tom Murphy, Lycoming County Extension Director, spoke in an interview with the Independent during that Monday evening meeting, attended by well over 100 people. “But that’s not what this meeting’s about. This meeting is about educating people so they can make an informed decision about their land and rights.”
An unfortunate coincidence of timing may have made this a more difficult process. Owing, Murphy said, to a scheduling mistake, the Gas Leasing Workshop took place concurrently with the Damascus Board of Supervisor’s monthly meeting. Not only did this make for a noisy and crowded community center, but it also meant citizens could not attend both - and supervisors could not be present at a meeting walking their citizens through one of the more momentous property decisions they will ever make.
Nonetheless, the Penn State educators put on a concise, yet comprehensive program, which touched on many of the salient points facing a lessor, or property owner. These points could be confusing at times.
“You’ll be leasing the rights by parcel; a parcel is a set amount of acreage which may or may not be the same size as your property,” said Earle Robbins, Tioga County Extension Director. “The process is much like selling timber.”
The ‘timber’ in question is most likely to be Marcellus Shale, a high-yield Devonian shale which is commonly found between 7800 and 8100 below the surface. Much was made early in the meeting of the profitability of Marcellus Shale, which included comparing it to Barnett Shale in the famously mineral-rich fields of North Texas. But an even more exciting possibility is that our area will contain some of the famed Trenton-Black River play, an ancient Ordovician roverbed whose wells have sometimes spouted over $30 million in six months. Or, they could come up dry.
