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).