Land men or others in this line of work, heard of Chesapeake Oil being in a bind with Total of France, because CO were supposed to maintain the leases that they sold to Total of France last year? 25% of the leases in the Barnett Shale. We have been leased to CO for some 6 years now and my cousins and I don’t wish to re-lease the land on a 5-year lease. I offered 3 years at same as before $5000 an acre. This 80 acres sits in the sweet spot of Tarrant County. They have told us over and over that the city where the land is will not give them a permit for a drill site, however there are several drill sites around the location in the same city and they could reach this land from 3 of those.
If you are right about the “sweet spot,” I suggest you let the current lease expire, get a release from “CO,” and reassess the supply and demand economics at that point. In the meantime, check the force majeure clause in your lease that may allow CO to hold it past the exertion date. I think you are in a good area and can afford to be patient.
Those $5000 - $20000 / acre leases, for dry gas, have long been made obsolete by all the liquids-rich shales that have since been discovered. Good Luck!