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5-7-10 Dear H.W.C.C. Homeowners, After years of waiting, and several months of negotiating, we have reached a leasing plan with Chesapeake for a good portion of our coalition, with hopes to lock up a suitable proposal on the remainder in the near future. As it currently stands, the eastern portion of Watauga and our members in North Richland Hills fall within Chesapeake's current plans. The gas companies' split of interest is based principally on where they have acquired drillsite locations. Thus, it looks like we will need to have two leases and/or two phases of leases, being the East Phase and the West Phase. Based upon the foregoing, after much struggle over the decision to divide our group, our Negotiating Committee has recommended Chesapeake's lease proposal on the East Phase, to the entire, extended Committee . For several reasons, including that some unified large scale leasing activity within our footprint is better than none, our Committee unanimously approved the Chesapeake proposal for the East Phase. Further, the lease form was negotiated and approved by our attorney, Mark Nastri, and contains virtually all of the protections we wanted. Please forward your questions and comments to your Addition Leaders.
The basic terms are as follows: The following additions are included in the East Phase. Please check the map to verify which Phase your property falls within. The East Phase is outlined in blue.
As soon as we iron out the signing details (dates, times, locations, etc....) we will email and post on this website. For the time being just keep an eye on our site and your email. The rest of the coalition will be considered the: WEST PHASE Please rest assured that our Committee and attorney will fully continue to work diligently to secure a suitable lease for the West Phase, as soon as possible. To that end, once the East Phase is signed and there is wholesale action in the area, the West Phase should become more attractive to the gas companies.
The following additions are included in the West Phase:
(If you are not sure what addition your property is on, please go to the Tarrant Appraisal District website at www.tad.org and do a property search or please email Faith Baker at fabaker@embarqmail.com or Hope Brennan at hope.tom@verizon.net and we will help you.) We will continue to post all news and important information on our website and send emails to our contact list to keep all HWCC members informed. Sincerely, HWCC Committee
MESSAGE FROM OUR DIRECTOR, MARTY LEICHT: 4-30-10 Dear Homeowners, Because we are too big for just one gas company at this time, we are working on an East Phase/West Phase split. Stay strong and we are close to the end. More information to come soon.
URGENT: TIME SENSITIVE
04-26-10 One of our members, Nelson, notified us of a Coucil meeting at City Hall tonight at 6:00pm and stated the following: "There is an agenda item on tonight's City Council meeting to approve a gas lease between Caffey and the City of Watauga. Terms (you can view it on City's web site under: City Council; Current Agenda - if you click on the item, it should also show the actual contract) are about $275,000 for nearly 75 acres (about $3500 per acre) and 24%."
You can view this information at
the
City of Watauga website. We feel this is too low an amount. A few of our HWCC members will be attending this meeting to voice their opinions. We hope for a good turnout. Any feedback is appreciated. UPDATE: The council members present voted unanimously to take no action at this time. This means the City is also waiting to get a better deal which can favorably impact our individual outcomes. Please visit the City of Watauga website for more information and you can also obtain the contact information of our City Council Members. 2-24-10 Dear Fellow Homeowners in Watauga and North Richland Hills: When we first began our group in the Spring of 2008, the volunteers walked from door to door contacting their neighbors to join with them to form a larger unit and to find an attorney to represent us because a mineral rights lease is a long-term contract. Now in the late stages of our negotiating for a fair lease agreement we have a large group with all the Additions in Watauga and the area in North Richland Hills within 6,000 feet of the Graham Ranch Well site. You can go to our Area of Interest and you will see our area marked in red. Our webmaster has revised the section on ADDITION LEADERS, to add several new leaders and list all of the additions in Watauga and North Richland Hills that are a part of our group. After our call for volunteers last week, we have had an overwhelming number of emails and telephone calls with questions. Most of the questions were regarding the letters and door to door solicitation by landmen with lease offers. The Caffey Group has mailed letters, attached letters to the door, and called on the telephone, in some areas as many as six times in the last couple of months. When asked, "what can we do to stop these letters?" Our answer is always the same, refer the landman to our website http://qhmr.angelfire.com and contact our Negotiating Committee via the website. Mr Caffey, of the Caffey Group is one of several companies which our attorney, Mark Nastri, and our Negotiating Committee have been working with to get an acceptable lease agreement. The lease written by our attorney is far superior and protects our property and mineral owners much better than the lease these landmen are asking your to sign. We have a number of hard working volunteers, most of them organized their neighbors before they became a part of HWCC. As we get closer to a final mineral lease agreement, we need more volunteers to help us keep our homeowners informed. We need to be sure our homeowners know when we have a lease that is approved by the HWCC Committee. Messages from our homeowners is our number one source of news on what is happening in our neighborhoods. Keep in mind, you can contact anyone on our website and they should be able to answer your questions or refer you to someone else that can. So, we encourage you to stay involved and talk to you neighbors, especially the ones that do not have access to a computer. Also, if you have the time, check the updated list of ADDITION LEADERS on our website, and volunteer in an area close to your home. REMEMBER, WE CAN STAY A STRONG GROUP OF HOMEOWNERS, IF WE ALL HAVE THE SAME GOAL. Sincerely, HWCC Committee
January 26, 2010 Dear Neighbors: The Volunteers working with the HIGHTOWER/WAMRA CONSOLIDATED COALITION (HWCC) would like to express our appreciation for your support and understanding. The natural gas leasing business has definitely been up and down, and now going up again. Some of us have been working for over two years to assist our neighbors in securing a fair lease agreement for their properties. We have several Addition and Block Leaders that have done an amazing job of getting letters-of-intent signed by their neighbors. TO ALL THE VOLUNTEERS WE WANT TO THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE INITITIVE TO ORGANIZE THIS GROUP. If you have any questions go to our website http://qhmr.angelfire.com, contact information for your Addition and Block Leaders is on the website, along with your HWCC spokespersons, Hope Brennan at email address hope.tom@verizon.net and Faith Baker at email address fabaker@embarqmail.com, will be happy to answer your questions. If they do not know the answer, they will try to locate someone that can answer your question. If you have any offers from a gas drilling company or an investment company buying leases in your area, please direct them to our website: http://qhmr.angelfire.com where they can find the contact information of our Negotiating Committee . While we would hope you would stand firm and wait until we get a great lease offer and form and better terms than the run of the mill "slick lease", you are certainly not contractually bound to wait a little longer but we hope you would do so. We need to also say "Thank You" to our attorney, Mark Nastri, and the members of the Negotiating Committee that are continuing to meet with representatives from interested gas companies regarding the leasing of our mineral rights. As you may already know, recent news reports indicate an interest in developing the Barnett-Shale natural gas reserves by new companies with money to invest. Last month Exxon Mobile announced the pending merger with XTO Energy and last week Total SA and Chesapeake entered into a joint venture. (Total SA acquiring 25% of Chesapeake's Barnett-Shale holdings.) Both XTO and Chesapeake have shown interest in leasing our mineral rights in the past, with more money to invest in leasing and drilling, we can expect renewed interest from these and/or others in our mineral rights when these deals are finalized. In fact, we are currently in initial discussions with two gas companies. In closing, the members of the HWCC Committees would like to remind everyone that we do need your help. For the most part right now we need you to talk with neighbors and be sure they know about our group. In addition, keep in mind mineral rights leases that your neighbors signed two or three years ago will soon expire. Invite them to join HWCC. We will continue to sign new members and grow even larger in the New Year - 2010. REMEMBER, WE DO HAVE STRENGTH IN NUMBERS!!!! Sincerely, H.W.C.C. Committee
12-4-09: Several of our homeowners have been contacted by gas companies. We are still a strong group and they should be directed to our negotiating committee and our attorney. We are seeing activity from more than one gas company and expect to field one or more offers in near future. We will keep you updated as soon as news come available.
Dear H.W.C.C. Homeowners, Several gas companies have contacted our lawyer, Mark Nastri. They are interested in our area and currently working with Mark. We are moving foward. Some gas companies have been contacting us as individuals as opposed to us as a whole group. Please hold off and lets stick as a group. It is always better to negotiate as one large group than by ourselves. Sincerely, Marty Leicht, Director (refer all comments and questions to: hope.tom@verizon.net) We would like to let you know that we are still a strong group and here to answer your questions. Our Communications Director, Faith, has compiled some wonderful informative gas lease/drilling information that can be viewed at the Watauga library's reference section. Please contact her at 281-572-1337 or fabaker@embarqmail.com. We have an electronic Letter of Intent so you can join online. A printable version is also available if you choose to mail it. If you have contacted us in the past, we still have your information on file. I would also like to repost the letter from our Negotiating Committee: Dear Neighbors, 10/30/08 There has been a lot of speculation regarding gas leases in our area as it pertains to drilling in the Barnett Shale. The negotiating committee and our attorney would like to clear up a few items and also let you know about our plan of action. Since being formed, the negotiating committee has had numerous discussions with several energy companies regarding leasing our gas rights. We have hired an attorney to represent us in the negotiating process. His name is Mark Nastri with the firm Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr, P.C., in Dallas. Mark has been an attorney specializing in oil and gas and mineral rights law for several years. He has represented numerous coalitions in the Tarrant County Barnett Shale play. Our coalition approved a contract very similar to the one used by the 360 Northwest Coalition in Grapevine and Euless (which our attorney also represented). Unfortunately, the recent chaos in the financial markets and lower gas prices has caused energy companies to dramatically alter their leasing activities for the time being. Except for the original lease offer received over a year ago, we have not received a lease offer and legitimate contract from any energy company. And given the recent events, the negotiating committee has decided to adopt a wait-and-see approach for the time being. We continue to monitor events, and our attorney remains in contact with representatives in the industry. We are continuing to add more members to our coalition, now numbering several thousand properties in Watauga and North Richland Hills. When there is something to report to you, we will contact you. In the meantime, we ask you to please DO NOT sign anything with any energy company unless you hear from us or have had your own personal attorney review same. As for signing bonuses, the typical home in Watauga is 1/6 of an acre. Some lots and corner lots are larger. A signing bonus of $5,000 results in a check for $833. A signing bonus of $20,000 results in a check for $3,333. Many of us have lived in our homes for 15 to 20 years and longer. Suffice it to say, few IF ANY of us purchased our home with the intent of making money from the minerals. Consequently, we have not relied on this potential windfall to pay our mortgages or other bills. Waiting a few more months will not change these dynamics. Of course, as always, you are not required to remain in the coalition or to accept our suggestions and position. Further, if your financial situation requires leaving the group, you may do so at any time. Please let us know, and we will remove you from our list. Natural gas prices vary on a seasonal basis. If an energy company was making a handsome profit while signing lease bonuses were upward of $20,000 to $30,000 per net mineral acre, then even with seasonal adjustments factored into the equation it stands to reason that they can pay a lot more than $5,000 per acre and still make a handsome profit. As a united group, we will remain strong. If the energy companies can pick parts of us off, it weakens the group and enhances their bottom line. We are committed to arriving at a fair market price for our minerals. We are not trying to sign the highest lease ever signed, but are looking to sign a contract that provides us fair compensation and that will protect our rights throughout the lengthy production period, regardless of well ownership. Respectfully, The Negotiating Committee Pete Beierschmitt Marty Leicht Del Gilliam Doug Chapman Roger Mullins
Please read our Disclaimer.
11-21-08- Some homeowners have received fliers from several gas companies wanting to meet with them at certain locations or wanting the homeowners to call them. We have not endorsed or approved any offers from any gas company, we will contact you personally via email and or phone once we have reached an agreement.
11-5-08- Message from Lisa Worley, Treasurer: We are in need of supplies, specifically paper, envelopes and stamps as well as any monetary contributions, to help with website fees, meetings, signs and much more. Please contribute. You can drop off or mail donations to me at 6517 Johnnie St., Watauga, Texas 76148. Please call me if you have any questions at 817-656-1902. Sincerely, Lisa Worley H.W.C.C. Treasurer
10-18-08 1:51pm- Gas companies are sending out discouraging letters to homeowners and coalitions in hopes of breaking up the organizations. This is a strategic move on their part to force people into signing tendentious contracts. They are taking advantage of the current economic downfall and they are counting on us to be weak, fall apart and sign under duress. Most of you have heard stories of friends and family signing under those same conditions and now regret it. No matter what you are being told by the people who are patrolling our area and trying to bully us into signing, it is not true and/or the facts are being distorted. The more united we are, the stronger we will be. They will try to sign members whom they consider weak. We will always get a better deal as a united group. It is known historically, that during an election year, the economy can be unstable. Unfortunately the gas companies are using this to their advantage to take advantage of us.
10-17-08 12:00pm- Though some of the recent headlines indicate a decline in the interest in natural gas development in the Barnett Shale, there are many factors that offset those suggestions. In any event, our mission to get the best lease at the best terms, has remained the same. Although the media has portrayed that natural gas development has been somewhat attenuated, natural gas is a commodity and like all commodities, prices rise and fall seasonally and cyclically. Despite the current commotion in the gas industry, representatives of the gas companies are still visiting homeowners in our area trying to obtain signatures on biased leases. Even though it may seem like a "sign now with whoever" market, it is not. We are a strong committed group and we are working hard every day to make the best deal possible for our members. We are in current negotiations with interested parties and open to offers. Any offers brought to an individual homeowner who is a member of H.W.C.C., should also be offered to the whole coalition and should be advised to contact our negotiation team. We
will be advising homeowners of an outcome along with our lease details once acceptable terms are agreed upon, via this website, e-mail and
phone calls for those who do not have access to a computer. Thank you for your patience and continued support. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. Our contact information is listed on the Committee and Addition Leaders tabs.
It is very important that we contact our neighbors and let them know to join us. We have strength in numbers and some homeowners are not even aware we exist. Please go out and let them know. Fliers are available on the Addition Leaders tab above. We also need Addition Leaders and Block Captains. Please let us know if you are interested by sending an email to info@myminerals.org .
Sincerely, Committee/Fellow Homeowners |
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