A non-profit advocacy group for landowners in Broome County. The Joint Landowners Coalition of New York says its mission is

To foster, promote, advance, and protect the common interest of the people as it pertains to natural gas development through education and best environmental practices.

Their general meetings are “held on certain (usually Tuesday) evenings 7-9 pm at Cornell Cooperative Extension”, according to their web site. And they’ve schedule a “Natural Gas Development Summit” on Friday, February 26th, but is open only to invited guests.

The Press and Sun-Bulletin reports that

The JLCNY will be able to accept donations, lobby lawmakers and fight for landowners’ rights and interests. That might include helping landowners in a dispute over how gas is metered as it’s taken from their property, interpretation and compliance of leases, or sorting through how mineral leases affect mortgages.

It seems that America has surpassed Russia in development of natural gas, becoming the largest producer in the world. World Oil Online reports

The US, with its big gas shale resources, has surpassed Russia as the world’s leading gas producer. The US government’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) said US gas production for the year probably rose 3.7% to 624 billion cubic meters, its highest level of the decade. Russia’s output fell 12% to 582 billion cubic meters last year, the Russian energy ministry said this week.

In the US, … lower gas prices last year than in 2008 encouraged the power sector to absorb the booming output from newly developed gas shale deposits. The surprising boost shale gas has given US output has closed the world’s biggest energy consumer to some imports and “created a huge oversupply of LNG in Europe,” Korchemkin said.

Exxon Mobil Corp. has entered the natural gas game by purchasing player XTO Energy. The New York Times article notes

The move — a show of confidence in the future of unconventional resources — could also spur additional investment in domestic unconventional natural gas plays like the Barnett in Texas, Marcellus in Appalachia and Haynesville in Louisiana.

Fortuna Energy has reached an agreement with the state Attorney General over deceptive practices. They’re to be fined, and landowners who were fooled into extending leases must be allowed to renegotiate. The Press & Sun-Bulletin reports:

Fortuna sent letters to hundreds of landowners whose natural gas leases with the company were about to expire, stating that Fortuna had the right to extend the leases without the landowners’ permission, according to the AG’s office. Fortuna claimed that the leases contained provisions that allowed the company to put the lease on hold until they obtain the required horizontal drilling permits from the state Department of Environmental Conservation. Most landowners’ leases contained no such provisions, [Attorney General] Cuomo’s office said.

…

customers who were misled and ended up extending their natural gas leases with the company [will be allowed] to renegotiate their terms, Cuomo announced Tuesday.

The settlement also stops Fortuna from using misleading and deceptive tactics to secure leases from New York landowners. The company also agreed to pay $192,500 to the state in connection with the settlement, the AG’s office said.

It took 18 months, a bit longer than planned, but the 182-mile-long Millennium Pipeline is open for business as of Monday. PressConnects.com tells us:

Crews may still be visible at various points of the project, which bisects Tioga and Broome counties, as work to reseed and restore the land over the pipeline and control erosion is expected to continue through next year, said Mike Armiak, a spokesman for the company.

The new 30-inch-diameter line replaces the outdated Columbia A-5 line, which is 12 inches in diameter. The old line, which runs mostly parallel with the Millennium, will be left in the ground through Broome County.

This isn’t gas-related, but the work of the Hancock Partners ought to be of interest to all of us. They have forwarded me this notice:

The Hancock Partners Inc Invite You

Please join us at 7:30 PM on Monday, December 8^th in the HCS auditorium. Alan Sorenson will present the Hancock Economic & Development Plan

We have seen some progress with our Main Street project and a few welcoming signs.We all know that there is much work to do and that it will be expensive.

This plan deals with these issues in a logical way and identifies sources of outside funding.This plan clearly states that we must pull together as a community to make the necessary improvements.

We guarantee that you will leave this meeting with a condensed version of the plan in your hands.We hope that you will leave the meeting with a desire to encourage local government to be optimistic and seek improvement.

Hancock will continue to change over the next few years. We ask that you invest an hour of your time on December 8^th to see how you can help direct this change.

The projects contained with this Development Plan will require extensive local support. Please bring a friend with you to this meeting.

RSVP:

In order to for us to have enough handouts please let us know if you will be able to join us at 7:30 PM on Monday, December 8^th at the HCS auditorium..# attending:________

Please bring along any friends who have an interest in Hancock.

A local meeting on Monday the 17th provided a forum for county officials and the public to sound off on gas drilling issues. NewsChannel34 reported on the event:

Many municipal leaders and area gas coalition members want the DEC to expedite the process of drawing up the guidelines to review drilling applications in one of the world’s largest natural gas plays — the Marcellus Shale, which we sit on top of.

They believe drilling can be done safely and be a big economic boost as long as the proper environmental checks are in place. One concern is that drilling could be delayed while additional studies on how drilling could affect the New York City Watershed are done.

Binghamton Town Supervisor Tim Whitesell represented many coalitions at the meeting.
And, says the DEC needs to look at our area separately from the city. Whitesell says, “That has a direct impact on all of upstate New York. It needs to be addressed on a separate issue, removed from the current GEIS, so that we can move everything forward.”

Other things Broome County is asking the DEC to carefully look at are noise concerns and where waste from drilling is kept. The county is against keeping it in earthen pits and favors steel tanks.

A Norwegian company, Statoil, is paying $3.375 billion for about a 32.5% interest in Chesapeake’s Marcellus operations. According to Reuters,

StatoilHydro, the second-largest supplier of natural gas to Europe, said it would pay Chesapeake $1.25 billion in cash and pay $2.125 billion in drilling costs for a 32.5 percent stake in the Marcellus prospects in the Appalachia region in the northeastern United States. …

The deal, which covers 1.8 million acres of land, will ease tight funding at Chesapeake, which labours under a heavy debt burden. …

The transaction is expected to close by year end. …

StatoilHydro also exports liquefied natural gas to the U.S. from its Barents Sea field.

StatoilHydro said Chesapeake planned to continue acquiring leases in the Marcellus shale play and that it had the right to a 32.5 percent participation in any such additional leasehold.

I find it interesting that they import gas from the Barents Sea. I had understood that transportation of gas was difficult, which is why pipelines are being built all over the place.

It’s also interesting that CHK will continue to acquire leases, considering that they’ve curtailed them this fall.