Pipelines

[bward]

Get a hold of this lady.

Norma LaFonte
LCS - LaFonte Consulting Service
"A Landowner's Perspective"
Land Advocate, Interim Land Agent License # 1774
Phone: (403) 934-2393
nmlafonte@aol.com

She is a power house when it comes to surface rights. What most people don't realize is that a pipeline will Permenantly affect future use of your land. You can't subdivide, you can't cross it to harvest gravel, sand etc. Don't sign anything today, until you talk to this lady.

[Ron]

my agreement didnt get me anual rental
BUT if and when an annual rent is put in place it applies to my place retroactively.
Also I know of a fellow who has time so insisted he or his son inspect each piece of equipment that enters for $250/inspection and he has turned equipment back 4 times in a row as it wasnt clean enough.
Thats the only way you will know for sure they are following any agreement and dont inspect it for free. A man (self qualified weed inspector)with a pickup is worth $100/hour in the patch with a minimum callout of 4 hours so 250 is cheap for them. That is with 24 hours notice as well (no phone calls at 7:00 am saying they will be at the lease at 7:15 meet them there if you want to inspect BS). I worked with Paul Vasseur (used to be with the farmers advocate office) and was very happy with the results

vasseurp@telusplanet.net

[coppertop]

The only problem with that scenario Ron is that if the landowner inspects the equipment and allow it onto the property, how are you going to go back on the company if you end up with noxious weeds in a year or two ?

[Ron]

Very good point, if you do this you have to be vigilant. In my case NAL already screwed up and had equipment on without washing and have accepted responsibility for any possible contamination in writing so anything that shows up is their problem but I hadnt thought about your scenario.
Possibly better off to have the oil company inspect with you doing random audits?
Has anybody heard about 3rd party environmental assessments before and after?

[coppertop]

In one case on my property I insisted on having an independent environmental consultant involved in a reclaimation project. This was invoiced back to the oil company, so there was no out of pocket expense on my part. The consultant was onsite when any remedial work was undertaken, and certainly represented my interests during the entire process.
Some companies are very good to deal with, while others will use every loop hole possible to get out of assuming responsiblity.

[sundance]

Ron

I have a pipeline coming in, I am going to try to get the annual rental clause. It is a small company named Optimus.
Would you share the name of the company you have just dealt ?

[Horse]

Petro Reef is the company I am dealing with whitch is also a small player.They wont even talk about anual rent unless there is above ground structures and mabey not even then.
I looked on the surface rights decisions on the net and I dont know why but they awaraded 6000/acre and 3000 temp work space on a lot of decisions but they are range 20/21 where mine is in range 26 ,much the same quality of land and I am offered 2000/acre I realy dont know why but I brought it up with the land man but didnt get far with that so will wait and see whats next.

[coppertop]

Don't back down horse, landmen are given so much leeway, and I would suspect they less they have to pay out for right of entry, the bigger their commission.

[farmers_son]

I did a little checking. Petro-Reef has been doing a lot of work in Township 55 Range 26. If that is your area, Petro Reef got a pipeline permit on 33/055/26/4 just over a week ago. They may want to construct your line at the same time. Just speculating.

I would recommend you get someone to help you if you want to hold tough for what you want. The landmen can be tricky and when push comes to shove they are not real honest. I always say if a landman says nice day isn't it, that you need to look out the window just to be sure. Do not believe a word those scoundrels say.

Your ability to negotiate a price that is satisfactory is sometimes influenced by the company's ability to go around you. If your land is situated so the company has to deal with you that helps. Or if these is a geographical feature that would make an alternate route difficult, that helps too. Pipelines are expensive to build, the amount of money you get is really nothing. However they will spend $10,000 to go around you rather than pay you a fair price.

The company will completely recover all the money they will pay you in only a few days shipping gas underneath your property. I always say that landowners are not negotiating a right of way when the landman comes calling, they are negotiating for your cooperation and for quick construction of the line. While it is true that they can go to the SRB that process takes months and the costs involved plus the loss of income from no gas sales while that is happening would easily exceed $100,000.

[Ron]

Sundance, the company is NAL, Paul
Vasseur worked on my behalf and he said the provision for rental applying retroactively (when/if it becomes law) is standard in the stuff he adds to the agreement.