The Marcellus Boom: Lessons from Texas!

[Bravo Zulu]

Christine Ruggiero and her husband, Tim, own a 10-acre property in Decatur, Texas. More than a year ago, Aruba Petroleum drilled Barnett Shale wells on the Ruggieros' property against their wishes

Seventeen months later, and still she can scarcely believe that it happened: That drillers from Aruba Petroleum showed up on her land unannounced; that they erected a 175-foot drilling rig and installed two natural gas wells on her small family ranch, 40 miles from the Oklahoma border and dead in the middle of the deep gas region called the Barnett Shale. That the house she and her husband, Tim, paid $240,000 for a decade ago is now valued by assessors at a quarter of that, thanks to the fenced-in wellheads and the green condensate tanks that remain on their land, chewing up about three of the homestead's 10 acres.

read more.
http://shale.sites.post-gazette.com/index.php/business/23897-the-marcellus-boom-lessons-from-texas

[Ikonoklast]

1. Caveat Emptor.

When you don't own the mineral rights to your land, this is what happens.


They should not have been surprised.

[notadmblnd]

2. The didn't own the mineral rights to their land?

Cause they should be rolling in some dough right about now.