We moved to West Virginia and have free gas because of a well on our property, when we talk about it to other people outside West Virginia they don't belive me, does anyone else have this in other states??

-- sonneyacres (jtgt12@ntelos.net), December 24, 2001

Answers

It's free here in Oklahoma too.

-- cowgirlone (cowgirlone47@hotmail.com), December 24, 2001.

We have that in Kentucky too. My aunt has run her house for 40 years on her own gas. I have gas on my property, and as soon as I can get the money and find a small drilling rig....will set myself up also.

-- Wayne (wallen328@aol.com), December 24, 2001.

Used to be free gas in western NYS too, for life.

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), December 24, 2001.

Kansas has free gas. If I had free gas I would run everything, heat, refrigerator, lights, generator, I would convert my trucks to natural gas.

-- hendo (redgate@echoweb.net), December 25, 2001.

To Wayne, who has gas on his property. When you say you will get a rig and - What? If you already have a gas well and it needs work, like having the well swabbed or maintenance work done on it - there are companies who will come in and do that for you.

But, if there is no well, do you mean you will drill for it yourself?

I ask this because, I think everyone who speaks of having "free gas" on our property is speaking of having an existing well already on their property, or an outfit who leased their property came in and drilled a well. We are speaking of the priviledge that is granted the land owner of "free gas" from the well. (Often accompanied by the landowner's 1/8 of the money from sold gas from that well.)

I watched them drill our well and put it into production. Well over a million dollars in equipment and specialized vehicles and a row of 5000 gallon frack tanks and computer logistics vans and engineers and separator tank and regulators - it goes on and on.

If we have free gas, generally it is because someone drilled a well on us or we bought a property with an older well already on it.

I thank God everyday for our gas well and recognize it as an unbelievable luxury.

Our gas is very deep and expensive to acquire. If your gas is in what is called the "cow run" - amazingly only 700 feet deep here, my husband says someone with a small rig could actually drill the hole and maybe bring in a service rig to case it, contain it, valve it down and put it into production.

It is beyond the scope of most people, but not beyond the scope of anyone who can read and knows people in the industry and can get the state permits and put up the bond that is required and have the surveying done. If a man was bound and determined to drill a well for himself, it can be done. Just beyond the ability and finances of most of us.

-- homestead2 (homestead@localnetplus.com), December 25, 2001.

We are in WV and have free gas too. It all depends on the arrangements with the mineral rights and surface ownership.

-- Anne (Healthytouch101@wildmail.com), December 25, 2001.

In the western part of New York State when I signed a gas drilling lease, part of it included free gas for my farm. If they want to drill on my property I wanted free gas. The drilling company didn't much care for it but that provision is in all the leases the State uses for state owned land.

-- Paul (treewizard@buffalo.com), December 26, 2001.

There is alot of free gas property available here in SE Ohio too, very common thing here and in WV as well, my friend is in the process of purchasing a farm down here with unlimited free gas.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), December 26, 2001.

I live in North-West Pennsylvania and quite a few people in our area have free gas. We have a well drilled in the early 1900's. When it wasn't producing alot of gas, the gas company sold it to our relatives who owned the property at that time. It has kept our farm warm for free ever since. However if this well ever stops producing, we will probably be liable for plugging it (around $20,000.00). However I believe we can get around that if it ever comes to it by telling the officials when we get the money we will frack it. In fact I believe as long as it produces some gas that is all that is necessary. In addition to our well a drilling company leased the rest of our property. We now have 4 other wells on our property with more to come in the future. In the lease I made with the gas company, the first well would give me 300,000 cubic feet of free gas/year and each additional well would give me 200,000. So right now I am up to 900,000 cubic feet of free gas/year. Most leases only give you 200,000 or 300,000 per year. I am not able to use this gas for any kind of commercial business. Our gas company was very eager to work with us as they wanted to put a gas line across our property so this also worked to our advantage of what we wanted in the lease. I also designed our lease that the gas company had to drill a well within the first 6 months, and thereafter they have 2 years to drill another well or else the remainder of our property could be leased to someone else. 4 years ago they drilled the first 2 and now 2 years later they drilled 2 more. So I expect in another 2 years we will have at least 1 more well. I have done alot of research into leases so if anyone has any questions please feel free to email me. Some old leases have unlimited free gas but I doubt you will find any recent ones with unlimited free gas. Since most homes only use 100,000 - 200,000 cubic feet/ year most leases will do you, but I wanted additional gas in case any children down the road will build a house on our property and want free gas. If that happens I will have to get permission since our lease is only for 1 dwelling.

-- Michael W. Smith in North-West Pennsylvania (kirklbb@penn.com), December 30, 2001.