I own a few acres (upstate NY) in the path of the frack. I am fairly certain that my land would be a “producer” because I have seen oily sheen on top of water puddles up there.
I asked a local environmentalist about it years ago, before I bought the land, thinking that perhaps someone had dumped junk up there.
He reassured me by telling me that due to the type of shale in those areas, small amounts of “oil” just naturally found its way to the surface.
Seven acres. No homes for many acres on either side - nothing but state land behind me. IF fracking is allowed, the state will absolutely lease out that land behind me.
I won’t go into the BIG problems with water runoff, etc. that I have which makes my acreage nearly unusable most of the year - but it does make the prospect of a frack lease something that I will consider. As does the fact that the only near neighbors (across the road) are A$$holes extraordinaire.
Since I don’t live out there, I can almost tolerate those neighbors. Whenever we go out there though I feel I must take the dobes AND carry rifles.
If I am offered a frack contract...................
First let me say I’m not familiar with your area I’m in TX but have been in the oil business for about 40 years.
My first question is do you own the minerals on your land?
If you don’t own the minerals then at best you can only get surface damages if and only if they drill on your place or run a pipeline. there is a chance of them drilling on your place but with that small of acreage it would be a crap shoot. In TX it’s split up in 40 acre units with all those inside the unit splitting royalties depending on acerage owned. As far as a Fracing contract theres no such thing it’s just a part of well completion, the final stage in opening up a zone, you would recieve nothing for that. As far as them producing out from under you again that won’t happen they have to obtain all the mineral rights in that unit before drilling. Again if you don’t own the minerals the chances of you seeing anything is unlikely.