Harding County SD Landowners Group

South Dakota Mineral Rights Harding County, SD
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As one might expect, landowners who band together to negotiate with oil companies will receive better economic terms and protections for land and water than they would individually. Is anyone aware of such a group in Harding County?

A June 4, 2012 article in the New York Times by Keith Schneider entitled "New Value for Land in Rural Ohio" (www.nytimes.com/2012/06/05/us/mineral-leases-give-boost-to-rural-ohio.html) discussed the advantages to small mineral rights owners of banding together with others in the area to offer a tract of thousands of acres to the various oil companies. That Noble County group hired an attorney who wrote and negotiated a lease with very favorable economic and land protection terms.

In another eastern Ohio county, the Harrison County Ohio Landowners Group (HCOLG) has an excellent website (www.hcolg.org) that clearly explains why and how they banded together for mutual benefit. I have seen several similar websites and believe this is the best. They include an example of a landowner-friendly lease (27 pages) and a flyer (www.hcolg.org/files/Download/General%20Flyer.pdf) to post on bulletin boards or telephone poles to recruit neighbors to join their group. The HCOLG is a non-profit group by landowners for landowners formed in February 2011.

As Mr. Dan Ellis (owner of 132 acres and one of the organizers) says:
"One of the best ways to negotiate with the gas companies has been through landowner groups. Gas companies feel more comfortable giving higher dollar offers to larger acreages that they know they can make into a drilling unit. It is more efficient for them to deal with larger acreages. This also makes them more willing to approve a lease contract with more protections for landowners."

Our family owns the mineral rights to 320 acres (not the land) in Harding County and no longer lives in the area, but would like to join such a group that provides good protection for the landowner. If no such group exists in Harding County, could I convince one or more of the landowners to follow the example of the Harrison County Ohio Landowners Group in recruiting neighbors and setting up a similar website?

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Pioneer landowner groups to emulate. A list of established landowner groups and some oil & gas advice from the Penn State Agricultural Extension Service.

The Marcellus shale area (a natural gas play) began development relatively early so it is not surprising that the information network is well developed. At least 100 landowner groups have been created in Pennsylvania and New York since 2007 according to a March 29, 2012 Pittsburgh Post Gazette article by Sean D. Hamill entitled "Landowners unite to deal with drilling companies." Marcellus Drilling News (MDN) has a long list of Marcellus Shale Landowner Groups (www.marcellusdrilling.com/landowner-groups) that includes the number of members and group acreage, contact information and their websites. Some groups (e.g., www.mercercountygaslease.com) cover huge amounts of acreage, have very refined websites and do not clearly state their origins. Others (e.g., www.hcolg.org) are their opposites. An internet search for: landowner group should eventually turn up those on the MDN list and groups in other areas of the country.

Penn State University's College of Agricultural Sciences Extension Service has a website devoted to Marcellus shale natural gas (http://extension.psu.edu/naturalgas). Much of the information also seems applicable to oil or gas elsewhere. Among the extensive resources is a two-page paper written in 2008 entitled "Should You Join a Landowner Group?" (http://downloads.cas.psu.edu/naturalgas/pdf/LandownerGroup.pdf). One quote from the paper gives some very basic advice: "Energy companies are looking for contiguous blocks of land to form drilling units. Land that is not contiguous, or blocks that are full of holes (acreage not in group) reduce the value of the group leasehold."