Interesting article in The Washington Post about natural gas development and royalties. See: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/02/AR2009120204305.html?sub=AR&sid=ST2009120204375
The Eagle Ford Shale play is heating up and landmen are out in force leasing land in this prolific gas and distillate producing formation. I am curious as to what the top dollar signing bonuses are for Gonzales and De Witt Counties, Texas. If you have any input please share it here. ConcocoPhillips was offering $300 an acre a year and half ago. Then the bottom fell out of the gas market. New operators are back and actively leasing. Eagle Ford Shale formation is a consistent band of shale below aroudn 11,000 foot depth and wells are running initial production around 10 million cubic feet of high quality gas and good distillate production. This play is going to be a huge game changer and will replace coal as the affordable alternative to coal. Natural gas does not pollute like coal does. If you own land in the Eagle Ford Shale band that is 15 to 25 miles wide you have a production under your property. You do not have to worry about your neighbors lease sucking out your gas. The gas is tightly held in rock and the technology to frac these wells and bring them in as top producers is relatively new. The Eagle Ford is poised to be the the most prolific gas producer in the country. There is nothing but good news and better news coming out about this formation. The secret is out.