OXFORD – It’s getting tense out in the country where Norse Energy Inc. is pushing to obtain easements for a pipeline that would put its many natural gas wells into production.
The company’s wells in Chenango County’s northern towns of Preston, Plymouth and Smyrna are already online via transmission pipelines north, but infrastructure is needed going south to connect wells to the Millennium line just over the border in Broome County.
Misunderstandings between landmen and landowners, neighbors and even clients and their lawyers have fueled an air of underhandedness against the company.
A recent miscommunication between a landowner in the Town of Oxford and a landsman contracted by Norse ended a potential right-of-way contract. It also brought two neighbors closer in defiance against leasing.
Absentee landowner Tom Ruter of New Jersey, whose lawyer was in easement negotiations with a landman on his behalf, received a call from a neighboring property owner in Oxford who mistakenly told him that the lawyer with whom he was consulting was retained by Norse.
“I thought my lawyer was representing my interests,” he said.
The neighbor said a landman (who was soliciting both landowners on behalf of Norse) told him the information and, further, suggested he wouldn’t need an attorney for his own right-of-way contract because a legal template was already available.
Upon learning the information from his neighbor, Ruter said didn’t trust the landman anymore, pulled out of the deal and said his neighbor would do the same. “To me, that’s very snaky on his part. If somebody tells you that you don’t need a lawyer, man you better get one,” he said. “We (the two neighbors) are going to stick together now.”
The same landman had approached both neighbors and offered an easement addendum being prepared for Ruter by T. Mary McDonald, a Rochester-based lawyer. McDonald has also been retained by the Oxford Land Group, but works for non-group affiliated landowners.
The landman, Dan Banach of Oil and Gas Leasing Services of Erie, Pa., said he thought the template being prepared for Ruter was available to all.
“I told him (the neighbor) that the template being used would be able to be used for him and that he may be able to save money by using the same template. I think he misunderstood me that he wouldn’t have to hire his own lawyer for other things that he might need in his particular situation. Unfortunately, they never called me to straighten it out,” he said.
Norse Energy, Inc. attorney Dennis Holbrook said he thought the information relayed by the landman was “misconstrued,” but that he was in the process of clarifying the situation with the contractor.
Though she was not officially retained by Ruter, McDonald said she was nearly finished negotiating an easement on his behalf with Banach. She had edited, enhanced and modified the standard agreement in order to allow for provisions that were important to Ruter. She said she was angered to learn that her document had been presented to his neighbor as a way for him to save money on a lawyer.
“No one should ever say to another person that they do not need an attorney, and with a natural gas deal, is outrageous in my mind and totally wrong,” McDonald said.
Oxford Land Group president Bryant LaTourette, who often recommends legal counsel for folks concerned about pricing, easement terms, and the future marketplace said the communication between landmen and landowners “can get confusing” and he’s heard many “misleading statements” given out by landmen.
According to LaTourette, Norse’s easement offers currently fluctuate anywhere from $7 to $12 a linear foot and up to the $20 mark that is being negotiated for property owned by the Town of Coventry.
“Norse is focused in our area. I would like them to see the pipeline through to the Millennium and make it positive for everyone. But why can’t we just sit down with them and all of the coalitions and come to some kind of agreement that works for all? I think that it is in their best interest if they were honest.”
LaTourette said folks are concerned what easements will do to the future value of their land and whether agreements made might be transferred to another natural gas or pipeline company in the future.