UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- A Web-based seminar presented by Penn State Extension's Marcellus Education Team will focus on how ongoing shale-gas development across the state is affecting land and property values.
The one-hour presentation, which begins at 1 p.m. on Thursday, March 27, will feature Jeffrey Kern, senior appraiser with Resource Technologies Corporation, of State College, Pa. He noted that the buying and leasing boom by the shale-gas companies is over.
"As predicted, current renewal offers for undeveloped leases in some areas are much lower than during the peak, and in fact, some leases are being abandoned," he said. "The industry has moved from speculative buying and leasing to a mature operation based on knowledge gained and on current market realities. Development activity, lease rates and related property values are following this trend."
Kern pointed out that during the last half of 2013 in Pennsylvania, the majority of the 4,400-plus producing shale-gas wells involved leases with Pennsylvania land owners. "Obviously, the mineral rights and shale-gas activity play an important part in determining property values," he said.
Penn State Extension's Marcellus Education Team provides monthly webinars on a variety of topics. Upcoming webinars include the following:
--April 17: "Pennsylvania Royalty Calculations and Decline Curves," featuring Jim Ladlee, associate director of the Penn State Marcellus Center and director of special initiatives for the Penn State Shale Training and Education Center.
--May 15: "World Oil and Gas Resources, Consumption, and New Trends, According to U.S. EIA," presented by Aloulou Fawzi, industry economist and project manager for the Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy.
The webinars are free, but participants must register on the events page of the Penn State Extension Natural Gas website. The site also offers information about upcoming webinars. It is important that all who register provide an email address to receive the link to the upcoming webinar.
Previous webinars, publications and information also are available on the Penn State Extension natural-gas website, covering a variety of topics, such as natural gas production and waste figures; oil and gas best practices; Act 13 (Pennsylvania's oil and gas law); the volume of gas in shale formations under Pennsylvania; seismic testing; air pollution from gas development; water use and quality; natural gas liquids regional development; royalties; gas-leasing considerations for landowners; gas pipelines and right-of-way issues; legal issues surrounding gas development; the impact of Marcellus gas development on forestland; gas pipelines and pipeline project trends; and the reclamation of cuttings from the drilling of Marcellus Shale natural gas wells.
For more information, contact Carol Loveland at 570-320-4429 or by email at cal24@psu.edu .