Ways to Reduce America's Dependence on Foreign Oil

Want to Reduce America's Dependence on Foreign Oil and increase demand for natural gas at the same time? Here are some things you can do:

• Visit www.cngnow.com and learn how we can reduce America's dependence on foreign oil NOW (while raising the demand for natural gas in the process). Contact your Congressman and Senators to tell them to support the NatGas Act which will provide incentives and credits to use more natural gas (bill status). Writing a letter usually works best.
  
• Get behind the Pickens Plan, which encourages increased usage of natural gas to power automobiles. There are 7 million natural gas vehicles (NGV) on the planet, but only 150,000 of those are in the US.
• Work together to share information or put blocks of contiguous mineral acres together. Information your best asset.
• You could even buy a natural gas-powered vehicle to set an example and help increase demand in nat gas. Of course, that would mean giving up your (and my) SUVs.

Games being Played with Haynesville Shale Leases

One of our readers, an attorney who both represents mineral owners and is a mineral owner, close to signing a lease and was negotiating a bonus between $14,000 and $17,000 per acre. The morning after the big stock market drop this week, the oil man called and said, "all our offers are off the table."

When our reader simply replied, "Okay..." the oil man quickly added, "but if you still want to lease, we'll pay $3,500 per acre." The other companies and lease men with which this attorney is dealing have not acted in a similar fashion and are very much business as usual.

With that said, is this a cheap sales tactic? or has the "well dried up?" (pun intended).

Hillbillies making millions out of American gas rush

Leave it to the British journalists to look farther down their nose (with green envious eyes!) at Haynesville Shale mineral rights owners than the New York Times. Sunday's Observer featured a page 3 story titled, "Hillbillies making millions out of American gas rush."

Judy was, until very recently, a normal 61-year-old great grandmother from rural Arkansas who taught English at the local middle school and spent her spare time taking care of five troublesome terriers.

Now, in a story reminiscent of the 1960s sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies, she has joined a rapidly growing group of millionaires cashing in on a natural gas gold rush that is sweeping the American south.

Full article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/aug/17/gas.oil

Drive a natural gas powered car to increase demand for natural gas

An increase in demand for natural gas results in price increases. For Haynesville Shale mineral rights owners, this means bigger royalty checks. One way to bump up demand is to put more natural gas powered automobiles on the road. Currently, the Honda Civic CNG is the only production car sold in America that runs on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). Great mileage and a fuel cost equivalent to gasoline of about $2 per gallon. 

Natural Gas Royalty Calculator

Like counting your chickens before they're hatched? Why not! Geology.com has a natural gas royalty estimator that allows you to dream about that mailbox money.

For example, let's say you leased 25 acres of minerals with a sweet 25% royalty and a nice Haynesville Shale well comes in at 4 million cubic feet day and the wellhead price of natural gas is $8.25 per thousand cubic feet day (or Mcf), you'd be looking at $117K in first year royalty payments.