[Nathans_Dad]

Wow, I feel like I won a little lottery.

We have been hearing for the last 6 months or so about Barnett Shale that lies underneath much of North Texas. Apparently this is supposed to be a big gas reservoir. Anyhow, we got a letter in the mail from a gas drilling company about 8 months ago offering us somewhere around $800 up front and then about 10% royalty on the gas. I guess they are planning to set up drill sites outside of our neighborhood and then horizontally drill underneath us to get the gas. Our HOA formed a committee and sent out regular updates on the gas issue. The first one said that they recommended that the owners not cash those checks until they did some research. We've been getting periodic updates since then but nothing earth shattering.

So about 3 days ago they send out an e-mail saying that they have reached an agreement with XTO corporation and the lease packets would be arriving to those homeowners who owned their mineral rights by Saturday. Well, Santa brought me a packet!! Somehow through dumb luck I was one of the people who has their mineral rights. I had no clue about mineral rights and if you were to have asked me to sign a piece of paper releasing them at closing I probably would have (along with the other 85 signatures....)

Anyhow, we are getting a check for just over $5k for a 3 year lease, XTO can extend for another 2 years after that but they have to pay us another $5k and we get 25% royalty on all gas produced (at least our small portion of the total field). XTO estimates we should be getting about $350 a month in royalty checks over the first year and it will slowly drop from there. They say the field should produce for 30 years and we can retain our mineral rights if we ever sell the property.

SCORE!!! This is one time where I love having gas...