Frequently Asked Questions
- How will Citizens Shale Advisors be compensated for its services? Citizens Shale Advisors clients will have no up front costs at all. CSA only gets paid when you are paid. If you don't sign a lease, we receive nothing and you owe us nothing. If you decide to sign a lease, CSA will receive a small percentage of your lease bonus and production royalties. The terms of our compensation will be decided and formalized prior to beginning discussions with the energy company.
- How will Citizens Shale Advisors work with us and the energy company for the lease?
Our role is to represent your interests and be your industry experts for lease negotiation. We will negotiate the best lease/contract in terms of safeguards to your property and maximization of your compensation under the circumstances and upon your direction.
Our experts understand the operational problems that require special attention and care to avoid contamination and other damage to your property. We hire lawyers licensed to practice in your state to ensure that the lease/contract is legal and binding.
We will address all of these issues with the energy company to produce a lease/contract that will provide the most benefit and the least risk to you. Wherever possible, there will be provisions in the lease/contract that will incentivize the use of best engineering and operating practices.
- Does Citizens Shale Advisors guarantee that accidents will not occur and that installations will be fail-safe?
No. There are no guarantees. Accidents are always possible, but with CSA, the likelihood of a faulty cement seal or casing, separators, compressors, or other equipments that emit product into the environment will be minimized to the extent possible through lease/contract negotiations.
- How does Citizens Shale Advisors propose to maximize my royalty? As an industry insider executive with 30 years experience, CSA president, William Fisher knows what the royalty should be for a lease. Our negotiations will aim for the best market royalty. As a stakeholder, our participation will level the playing field for you. With our knowledge available, you are not forced to rely on the energy company to determine the royalty rate.
- Why shouldn't I just have my lawyer review the Producers 88 lease offered to me and modify it if necessary?
Even the most conscientious, experienced, and specialized oil and gas attorney working without other industry professionals may not fully appreciate all the physical and economic details of an oil and gas lease/contract.
Lawyers who are not really long term specialists in oil and gas law are unlikely to know the complexity of the Oil and Gas lease concept and will likely not be acutely aware of the dangers inherent in the Producers 88 lease.
Very few lawyers, including oil and gas specialists, understand how and by whom the production cost factors and product losses are measured and verified as the product proceeds from the wellhead to market. We are fully acquainted with this crucial part of the business and are uniquely qualified to protect your interests through provisions of our lease/contract.
- How is an oil and gas lease different from a lease of my land for agricultural purposes?
Ernest E. Smith, a professor at the University of Texas has said the term "lease" is very misleading. The oil and gas lease is nothing like a common lease at all, nothing like a lease of grazing land, or for a house or car or apartment.
The Producers 88 lease leaves no real protection for the landowner and no practical remedy for any misdeeds without expensive and uncertain court involvement. It contains nothing that sets out the details of any duties or responsibilities to the landowner, other than the royalty percentage.
This lease is complex, detailed, and could remain in force for many decades. Although the laws vary from state to state, generally the common effect is to make the energy company the sole controlling entity in the use of your property, and you have little to say in the matter over the many years it is in force.
For all these reasons and because there is no up front cost to you we think you should strongly consider the extra level of professional assistance and protection that CSA, along with attorneys we will retain who are familiar with and competent in oil and gas practice, will bring to the details of the negotiation.
- When I sign an oil and gas lease am I granting rights to all of the oil and gas beneath the surface of my property or just those that prompted the energy company to approach me?
It depends on how the lease/contract is written. A standard Producers 88 typically conveys rights to all of the oil and gas.
