 By Alvin Engelke
alvinengelke@hotmail.com
Rev. Keith Belt filled his regular appointment at the Burning Springs M. E. Church.
Gay Park spent some time in the emergency room on Saturday but is doing better now that her ticker is acting better.
The bridge crew cleaned off the Creston bridge and had a trailer to haul off the accumulated dirt, cinders, unmelted salt and whatever. After sweeping up the dirt by hand the crew then washed the bridge. Also an inspection was done using a special boom to take a worker under the span. On another day they cleaned the Yellow Creek bridge at Brooksville. The Yellow Creek road is closed and the report is that it will be shut down all summer long.
Quite a bit of hay was made before rainstorms brought the activity to a halt. Apparently not too much hay 'got washed'.
Charles Russell was calling on Mr. & Mrs. Paris Parsons, Ray Gumm & brother Euell at the Miletree Center. The folks there were all concerned about Edith Kittle who was transferred to an assisted living facility that is in Ripley and now, since it changed hands must, under federal guidelines be closed for a month for new paperwork. Edith has no idea where she is going.
A local resident received a telephone call from a gent who said he wanted to buy oil & gas and wanted to know how much the local fellow wanted for his minerals. When asked if he was buying for Aubrey McClendon the fellow said he didn't know but that Aubrey's nephew was involved. One might compare the proposed "deal" as trading gold for base metals or paper that might become worthless in October when there is said to be a major financial restructuring involving the status of the U. S. dollar.
Calhoun County made the news by, so it was said, not going along with the Common Core dumbed down standards as pushed by the Big Eared One, little Jebbie Bush and other big government types and funded by Bill Gates who gets all the information on all the children that are in school. The new AP (Advanced placement) history texts take out all or almost all of the reasons why America came to be but talk about "all the warts" so as to put America on a par with Albania, Outer Mongolia, Lower Slobbovia, etc.
Milkweeds and butter fly weed are in bloom as are many daisies, sweet clover, day lilies and other seasonal favorites.
A number of the so called Republicans down in the swamps of the lower Potomac have shown themselves to be spineless worms who "go along to get along". The secret trade deal being just the last of a list of travesties and insults to the citizens. Instead of working for the people they seem to want to work to get along with the bloated bureaucracy instead of slicing it and eliminating layers and layers of fat government employees who, along with their lobbyist buddies, drive around in Italian luxury automobiles. Paul Ryan has shown himself to be no better than Mrs. Pelousey who said we would learn about the disastrous Obamacare after it was passed. Apparently at the behest of Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM) some of our 'leaders' went to see the Castro brothers to get some trade deals that will be guaranteed by the taxpayers. Apparently shame is a foreign concept to them.
Chesapeake is in the news again because the firm wants a suit dismissed which alleges that the firm included about 200 acres in a unit near Oglebay Park in Wheeling for which they did not have a lease. The suit made news a while back when it was determined that Chesapeake tried to get a leasing company to get a lease on the property, after the fact which indicated fraud. The Oklahoma based firm now claims that, apparently while the property is in the unit, no wells went through the disputed property which belongs to some local charities. It is understood that Total, the French firm may own some or all of Chesapeake's holdings in "southern West Virginia" which would be Calhoun, Gilmer and south. The leases in northern West Virginia now belong to Southwestern.
There was quite a bit of speculation why George Patterson had the language about the common law of taking deductions out of "gross royalties" in the big out of state company's forced pooling bill that they want so bad to get through the West Virginia legislature. Back when Broadway Joe was the governator he promised Aubrey McClendon, who was then the head of Chesapeake, that he would have a law passed to set aside the Tawney case which involved theft, fraud and other violations by Columbia Natural Resources which sold to Chesapeake. $800 million was put in escrow to cover the suit which was settled for $400 million.
A recent case in Texas, Chesapeake vs. Hyder, sheds more light on the subject and is important for anyone who owns even the smallest interest in oil & gas. The Hyder lease had the following language, "Lessee covenants & agrees to pay Lessor the following royalty . . . (b) for natural gas, including casinghead gas and other gaseous substances produced from the Leased Premises and sold or used on or off the leased premises, twenty-five percent (25%) of the price actually received by Lessee for such gas. Lessee shall not sell hydrocarbons to entities owned in whole or in part by Lessee or to entities affiliated with Lessee in any way, without the express written consent of Lessors. the royalty reserved herein by Lessor shall be free and clear of all production and post-production costs and expenses, including but not limited to, production, gathering, separating, storing, dehydrating, compressing, transporting, processing, treating, marketing, delivering or any other costs and expenses incurred between the wellhead and Lessee's point of delivery or sale of such share to a third part . . . In no event shall the volume of gas used to calculate Lessor's royalty be reduced for gas used by Lessee as fuel for lease operation or for compression or dehydration of gas . . . . Lessors and Lessee agree that the holding in the case of Heritage Resources vs. NationsBank shall have no application to the terms and provision of this lease." The Heritage Resources case allows for the deduction of transportation costs from "gross leases". One would hope that those who represent us read the case and the discussion concerning the case and how Chesapeake calculates royalties and if any legislation is passed put protections in the law to avoid such happening under the guise of "fair pooling" or some such. In the suit Chesapeake even admitted that their procedure of selling the gas to themselves was a sham as no money changed hands. The Hyder family won this case and $700,000 owed them by the company and $250,000 in legal fees. This involved the Barnett shale which is not as good as either the Marcellus or Utica shale and the big companies want West Virginians to have, by code, a 12.5% royalty as set forth in the forced pooling bill that is being pushed by the big money people. All the big Marcellus producers have midstream companies which the producing companies can "sell" the gas to some price which may or may not reflect reality for the basis of paying royalties, county & severance taxes.
The folks in the northern panhandle were paid net royalties from Chesapeake but when the county tax bills came they were for the gross royalties which the property owners, of course, never saw. The state tax department has been adamant that the citizens must pay taxes on the gross which really amounts to the locals carrying the burden of the "poor" big companies that don't like paying their fair share.
Antero made the news when one of their water trucks caused a chain reaction wreck on W. Va. 50, causing the death of a state road worker and sending five others to the hospital.
The price of local Pennsylvania grade crude dropped to $58.96/bbl. with condensate fetching $34.96 and Marcellus & Utica light $52.96 and medium $58.96/bbl.
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Hur Herald. | 
