Ashtabula Co. deals with fracking issues
By WARREN DILLAWAY
The (Ashtabula) Star Beacon
JEFFERSON
Though it has not officially begun in Ashtabula County, “fracking,” a natural-gas drilling process, is fraught with legal and environmental implications for local residents.
The intricacy of mineral-rights contracts is one emerging issue for county property owners, a number of whom have been approached by landowner groups, oil company representatives and lawyers concerning leasing their land for fracking.
Fracking is a process in which water, chemicals and sand are blasted into rocks thousands of feet below the ground to unlock natural gas and oil.
“We get a lot of calls every week [from property owners],” said Ashtabula County Commissioner Dan Claypool. He also said a recent visit to the Ashtabula County Recorder’s office shows a lot of new leases are being filed.
Other legal questions concerning mineral rights at different depths and the impact of a lease agreement on a financial lender are intriguing issues that Clarence Tussel, owner of two family businesses that drill for natural gas and maintain wells, believes are not yet resolved.
“There are times when you have to be patient,” Tussel said.
Claypool agrees.
“Everybody’s situation is different; those leases were put together so loosely,” Claypool said. “There are a lot of things going on, and I would caution anybody to not to sign anything [without consulting an attorney],” he said.
He said many people working to secure leases for potential drilling are not involved in the oil-and-gas industry but are middlemen who don’t know that much about the particulars of the industry.
A further legal complexity is that of drilling leases that were signed in the late 1970s and early 1980s when natural gas was having a local boom. Most of the leases were thought to be permanent, but some holders believe companies have not held up their end of the bargain and are questioning their validity.
Some property owners say small drilling companies have started to send royalty checks after long lapses, or fixing wells after ignoring them, and lease terms, for years.
“There are companies who are working hard to get their lease holds in order,” Tussel said.
Nate Paskey of the Ashtabula County Soil and Water District, agreed. “All of a sudden the [royalty] check will show up,” he said. “There will be legal [issues].”
Tussel said the details of lease agreements may not be what they appear to be on the surface. “You really need a good attorney,” he said.
“They [drillers] are paying you a lot of money per acre and they will minimize that [payment] by using various techniques,” Tussel said of clauses in the lease.