An Update of the CNY Landowner’s Coalition 

July 2009 

The rumors are out there.  The Binghamton/Conklin group and the Northern Wayne Property Owners Alliance are inching closer towards deals with Hess.  So what is going on with our coalition, The Central New York Landowner’s Coalition?  How close are we to seeing some money out of this?  Over the next few paragraphs, let me share with you what is going on with our coalition and give some signs to look for that may indicate we are getting close.

 

My, How You’ve Grown!

You have grown our coalition to represent an amazing 160,000 acres of land in our region.  Our size grants us the opportunity to present a gas company with a monopoly of acreage in upstate NY.  However, if we feel that we have outgrown the buying power of the gas companies, we then have the option to collect our coalition into numerous bidding units which would make us marketable to many gas companies.  No coalition in history has the bidding options that we have available to us in this process.  We congratulate you on successfully sharing with family, friends and neighbors the importance of linking arms to negotiate a lease that is friendly to our land along with financial terms that are profitable for our coalition participants and our region.

 

 Action to accomplish: . . . make sure that your neighbors are on board with our coalition.  We are not looking to expand our territory, just continue to fill in what we already have.  That is an attractive trait to gas companies.

 

The Devil Is In The Details.

Details abound in a coalition our size with the three most intricate projects being our lease, our database and our maps.  THE LEASE is done!  After months of ardent work, long meetings and a lot of dialogue with our attorneys, our lease priorities are all in black and white.  We now have a starting place to work with gas companies.  THE DATABASE is current.  With nearly 3,000 participants in the coalition this has been a major task.  THE MAPS of our coalition are nearly complete.  Currently our attorneys are taking our database and are producing digitally printed maps that show all the parcels of our coalition.  These maps can be distributed to gas companies that express interest in the coalition subject to the execution of a confidentiality agreement.

 

Action to accomplish . . ., Our attorneys will send out letters to numerous gas companies, when the time is right, describing our coalition and outlining the benefits of leasing with us.  We will look forward to hearing back from companies that have interest.  In regards to our lease, we plan to be both responsible and reasonable as we negotiate our lease priorities with a gas company.

 

First Things First.

There are some factors that will help our coalition as we go out to bid in the future.  When done, these will create a positive atmosphere for more aggressive negotiations.

          THE DEC:  How disappointing it has been to see all the deadlines pass for the DEC to finalize their regulations for drilling in New York with no document in sight.  The longer our government sits on its hands in relationship to drilling, the longer we have to wait for our rights as landowners to be realized.  The DEC’s disclosure of these documents would end speculation for the gas companies and hopefully give companies the green light to crank up their horizontal drilling rigs in our state.

          THE MARKET:   Talk about low.  The market price for natural gas is just one-quarter of what it was a year ago.  No one believes the market will stay this low for long.  It costs the gas companies the same amount of money to produce the gas if the market is low or if it is high (You dairy farmers understand this well with the milk prices).  Every penny of increase in the value of natural gas gives greater financial incentive to the gas companies to get their drill bits turning.  Look for this market to inch up the later third of this year.

          THE OTHER COALITIONS:  The main reason why the southern tier of New York and Northeast Pennsylvania are getting such attention is because they are within easy reach of the millennium pipeline.  It only makes sense that these coalitions get the initial attraction since it is through them that our gas must go to get to a major pipeline.  Once they are leased up, look for the attention to turn to their neighboring coalitions – which is where we come in.

 

Action to accomplish . . . attend and support the joint coalition rally on August 23^rd at the Bainbridge Regatta grounds from noon until 5pm.  The Theme of this rally is OUR LAND, OUR RIGHTS, OUR FUTURE. The rally’s purpose is to voice the landowners’ concerns that gas drilling is being impeded by the undue DELAY of the DEC updated regulations. All elected county and State officials, including Governor Patterson, have been invited.  Live entertainment, food, and informational tables will be available but bring your own chair. Coalition leaders will briefly address the rally with updated information.  You can check our website for updates.

 

Keep Current.

Our steering committee is committed to keeping people up-to-date through our website (www.cnylandcoalition.org).  Do to the excessive amount of spam through our open forum, that venue may be forced to close  down in the near future.  All announcements about the progress of the coalition and future meetings will be front and center on our main page if this should happen.

  

Timing Is Everything.

One has said that the difference between a foul ball and a home run is timing.  Good timing will have positive results for our work as a coalition as well.  The DEC and the value of natural gas at the market show us that the timing isn’t quite optimal for leasing.  However, some companies are coming to New York to get in before these factors improve.  Timing could change for the better very quickly and when it does change, we are ready.  Our lease is done, our database is current, our letters gauging interest, a reality, yet sometimes the home stretch can feel like an eternity to run.  Our committee considers it a true privilege that you are walking through this “once in a lifetime” experience with us.  It is very true that together, we can accomplish more for our state, for our land and for our families.