Myself and some of my neighbors received a letter from a group representing Seitel. They want to a 3 D seismic in a 60 square mile area. Any info on Seitel and 3 D seismic in general?
They did a huge seismic survey about 4 years ago in Brazos and Burleson County. I think they paid us $70/acre (total surface acres, not just mineral acres). Here's how it worked. They string seismic sensors every couple of hundred feet in a grid pattern wherever they have permission. Some days later, they come in with 3 vibrator trucks. These things are compact, but VERY heavy. The wheels are 6 feet tall. These monsters line up, lower a thick plate that's about 2x6 feet to the ground, then rev their engines while vibrating the ground for maybe a minute. Then then they move a couple of hundred feet to the next vibration spot and repeat. Some time later, they come in and retrieve the sensors.
They have a guy that follows the trucks around and places a monitor within a few hundred feet of wherever they're vibrating near any critical structures (like my barn on a concrete slab). He records the amount of vibration reaching that point so they'll have proof in case they get any damage claims. He was nice enough to let me watch and explained things to me. I could feel no vibration about 400 feet away from where the trucks were working. They have incredibly detailed GIS maps of every structure, well, body of water, pipeline, etc. and must stay out of designated buffers around them with both sensors and trucks. That's the good news ...
I specified in the lease that they could place sensors on our property, but NO vibration trucks. One day, here comes the giant trucks down our private road planning to drive within 10 feet of my house in the middle of the property. I was seriously p.o.'d and that brought everything to a halt. I talked to the supervisor and, out of the kindness of my heart, let them skirt along a fence line to get to another property. AS I am talking to this guy, the trucks move down the fence line and, as soon as they're out of site, do a couple of vibrations on my place. You can still see the truck tracks and plate depressions in the moist soil after 4 years. Now, I was really yanked. They came back the next day and asked if they could cut across my property in a different place to get to the property next door. H--- NO! This forced them drive over 5 miles to get to the property next to us. The trucks max out at less than 10mph, so that probably cost them thousands of dollars in lost time. Served 'em right.
My advice would be to take the money, limit them to sensors only and watch 'em like a hawk. You'll know they're in the area. You can hear the trucks vibrating from a mile (or more) away. Laying and picking up the sensors is no big deal at all. Hope this helps.
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Thanks for the info Charles that will very helpful. They said they won't be on our property until around June or so. They are doing a 60 square mile area designated as "Brenham West". I will be watching!