Coal bed methane again!

[cowman]

As I have said before, if you live in Alberta, pretty soon the coalbed boys will come calling!
Just a little story a guy told me the other day.
He has a methane well on his place. MGV is the company.
They were too cheap to put in a cattle guard but assured him a gate would just be dandy as they really didn't need to be in there all that much! Anyway after chasing cows all over the country(and out of his neighbors crops) three times in a span of three weeks he put a chain and padlock on the gate and sent MGV a bill for his time, his neighbors crop loss, and shrink on his cattle.
MGV promptly cut the chain and informed him they would NOT pay for his cattle getting out! At which time he informed them that they would not be drilling the two wells on his land that they wanted to. They have now filed a motion to take him to arbritation to force the wells and pipelines! He has retained a lawyer and expects to spend a lot of money fighting these crooks!
So when they come calling, be very careful...you are dealing with a very bad company...MGV!

[cakadu]

Sometimes short term gain is not worth the long term pain.

[wilagro]

Cowman...I could lend your friend my old US army rifle. That might keep the gas companies honest.

Seriously...arbitration in Alberta is a joke. Ninety five percent of the decisions are in favour of the gas or oil companies. A lot of money has been wasted fighting these companies, In the end the property owner is once again reminded that he/she only owns the top foot or so of soil, if that.

I wish the farmer/rancher every success but I believe that he is just biding time until the inevitable showdown occurs.

[cakadu]

For information on how to deal with the oil issue and your land, believe it or not, you can find some pretty good information at the Alberta Fish and Game website. The URL is: www.afga.org

Best lesson I ever learned from them was if you don't let the seismic on and they can't "find" it there, then they can't come and get it. Might leave a little wiggle room for directional drilling, but as for coming onto your place, that is a no-go.

[cakadu]

To clarify my last post, they have factsheets available through the Operation Grassland Conservation program that they have.

* fact sheets in OGC?s Landowner Toolkit Series, for example:

* Oil and Gas Development on Private Land
* Conservation Easements
* Environmental On-Farm Planning
* The Species at Risk Act, what you should know

[cowman]

I agree arbritration is a joke! You will just about always get less than they offered if you go that route!
However, there are other things you can do to make it very "hot" for the oil/gas company?
First insist the lease be fenced before any equipment moves on the place. Insist on a "county grade" fence! Get clauses in place(with teeth...penalties) about vegetation control!
Never sign the lease they present! Let your own lawyer draw up the lease or add on to it! A water extraction clause is usually enough to get rid of coalbed companies! The fact is if they are taking out methane, eventually water has to seep in to fill the vacum? And then they will have to extract it? So get a clause in there about extracting water and voila the coalbed company walks! Because in spite of all their lies they know that in two to three years they will be extracting water and it is basically very polluted water!
The lawyer, this guy retained, informs him he will be paid for the damages from the companies negligence in regards to his cattle. They simply take it to the surface rights board and get paid out of the bond the company has to post with the board! Apparently this particular company has a steady stream going to the surface rights board and they automatically just pay the landowners! As I said not a good company?