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>> BETSY SYKES: We have a viewer from Goldsboro who sends us an email and this email is I
know people who have already pre leased their land to gas companies. They have been approached
long before it was legal to drill in this way, does this makes these agreements noid
or have they already lost their rights?
>> Dr. Jackson: I can address part of that. I suspect all of us might want to say something.
It doesnt, you know the State bill will not make that agreement null and void. But I would
like to talk a little bit about what homeowners could do and should do in this situation.
The first recommendation is for homeowners to be sure you do your homework and what I
mean by that is everything from first of all, checking what the status of your mineral rights
are. I sampled a homeowner last week in Pennsylvania and they were in their home for 35 years a
couple and they assumed they owned 100% of their mineral rights, and in fact they didn't.
The previous owner retained 50 % mineral rights and sold those rights out from under them
and this couple was heartbroken. So, Check your mineral rights. Get your well tested,
if you are on a water well, a private well, get that well tested. Before drilling comes
to you. Even if it means you have to pay for it. So that if there is
a problem you have a baseline that's been tested and you have a foundation for that.
And then finally, do your homework when the gas companie representatives and leasing companies
knock on your door don't sign up for the first person who comes to your door, don't sign
up for $100 an acre, don't sign a lease that absolves companies of liability if you have
a problem and above all don't sign a lease where you assume responsibility if a problem
occurs. Be very, very careful and do your homework.
>> Dr. Taylor: About right at about 9,000 acres have been leased in Sanford and Lee
County. And in that Sanford subbasin it's about 800 and some odd groups have signed
on to get these leases in here. The biggest problem I've from the U.S. Geological Survey
perspective has been I don't know what the lease says. We have a memorandum of release
or we have a memorandum of an agency agreement serving as agent for somebody to pool the
information or pool their resources together. So I don't know what they are getting. It's
for a dollar and other considerations thereof. I don't have no idea whether getting $100
an acre or two. That's one the key things we come down to, we work with the Secretary
of State's office to make sure that these companies are registered. They are supposed
to be registered on the rules. A couple of weeks ago I, rather than have the Secretary
of State's office staff look up all the stuff that I had looked up, I just gave them my
4 and half inch thick sheath of all the lease statements I had for Sanford and just said
you borrow them as long as you need them. Make copies if you want to, give them back
to me when you are finished with them. Just so that they would'nt have to waste the time
of having to go on the website and pull each individual lease down from them. So, I look
out there and see there are clearly leases back from years ago clearly not right. You
know it says, for example, you can use your well for storing gas from some other location.
That's not allowed in North Carolina. Well, those kind of things we have to look and see
some of the leases may not be valid or some of these leases might have problems, but one
of the key things is you find is that you signed it and that's the problem about it.
If someone asks met best thing to do about a lease would be to have a lawyer look at
who has experience in oil and gas issues.