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www.BurlesonCrowley.com
Holdout groups receive record offer
By By Danielle Novy/bcnews@trcle.com
May 13, 2008, 18:13
Months of toil came to a end May 3 as members of two gas-lease-holdout organizations celebrated their success in earning the highest offer for a gas-lease bonus in Metroplex history.
Members of the Burleson Community of Gas Lease Holdouts and Central Burleson Holdouts will receive $27,200 per mineral acre and a 25.25 percent royalty from Chesapeake Energy, said Bill Mahanay, vice president of the Burleson Community of Gas Lease Holdouts. The bonus bests the previous record of $26,517 per acre that XTO Energy recently gave an Arlington group.
Because those who live in the area covered by the holdout groups can join either organization until Thursday, Bill Mahanay said his phone has been ringing off the hook from area residents wanting to jump on the band wagon.
“We’ve just been stampeded by people wanting to talk to us,” he said.
More than 550 parcels are owned by about 1,000 Community of Gas Lease Holdouts group members, all of whom will reap the benefits of big pay out, Bill Mahanay. The other organization, Central Burleson Holdouts, comprises an additional 1,000 parcels.
The board of directors for the Burleson Community of Gas Lease Holdouts fielded offers from both XTO Energy and Chesapeake before deciding that Chesapeake extended a better deal, said Carter Mahanay, Bill Mahanay’s son and president of the holdout group.
XTO offered the groups $22,000 an acre in addition to a 25.5 percent royalty, but Carter Mahanay said Chesapeake’s overall package outweighed XTO’s higher royalty.
“We’re elated,” Carter Mahanay said.
“Our business is to get the best price we can,” Bill Mahanay said. “We were asking for a minimum of $25,000 [per mineral acre].”
Although the Burleson Community of Gas Lease Holdouts exceeded its financial goal, Bill Mahanay will be the first to admit the road to success was tiring.
“We started in December — about six or seven months behind the landmen,” he said. “Landmen had 60 percent of South Burleson by the time we got started ... I’ve put in about 1,800 hours.”
Before receiving Chesapeake’s offer, Bill Mahanay was ready to ask his group’s members to wait as long it took to negotiate a satisfactory deal, he said.
“I was prepared to convince people to wait up to two years until the price is right,” he said. “So, we’re thankful for Chesapeake making us an acceptable offer.”
Area residents were originally offered about $1,500 per mineral acre, a sum significantly less than the offer on the table, Carter Mahanay said.
“When it’s all said and done, between the two groups, we’ll have close to 2,000 members and about 500 acres,” he said. “That adds up to about $13.6 million in bonuses.”
Mahanay said that after the final details of the lease are made with an attorney, a copy will posted on the Web site www.sthbha.org, and group members can print copies of the lease at an undetermined date after Thursday.
Representatives from Chesapeake said the company agreed to the record-breaking bonus because securing Burleson was important.
Chesapeake had already secured several successful drill sites in the area, said Matthew Toppins of Chesapeake.
“We felt this area would prove to be the same,” he said.
Jerri Robbins, manager of public relations for Chesapeake, said the corporation has more than two dozen wells in the area, with more in the permitting process.
“We have several drillsites we can use to access the minerals in this immediate area and already have lots of leasehold in Burleson,” she said. “We thought these additional leases would be a good complement to those.”
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