September 15, 2009

    A coalition of landowners in the Northern Tier and parts of Broome County make a deal with a local gas exploration company.
     Last weekend, about 900 landowners from the Friendsville Group made an offer with Fortuna Energy -- Fortuna will pay property owners $5,500 an acre and 20 percent royalties.
     Fortuna's Mark Scheuerman says the deal was a unique situation -- the landowners coalition came to Fortuna, rather than the other way around.
     “It tells me that they were organized, disciplined, and had good, experienced advisors,” said Scheuerman.
     Scheuerman says just because those landowners are getting this price, doesn't mean landowners in our area would get the same amount.  Every situation is different.
     “There’s a perception that this is potentially a new floor for these prices.  We don't see it that way.  There are a lot of unique things that have to come together to create an opportunity like this,” he said.
     “I always haven't gotten along with Fortuna Energy, but this really helps my feelings towards them,” said Ashur Terwilliger of the Chemung County Farm Bureau.
     Terwilliger has been following the natural gas situation for the past decade.  He says Chemung landowners' time will come -- but the most important thing is to stick together as a coalition, so royalties are equal across the board.
     “I see even better offers coming in the future.  Some of us are too old to see that, but don’t we have to protect the next generation?" said Terwilliger.
     Both Terwilliger and Scheuerman agree the Department of Environmental Conservation needs to finish its environmental impact study of horizontal drilling soon.