These past few months have been interesting. I've mentioned that Glen has a part time job running a bulldozer preparing oil lease sites for when the rigs come in to drill for oil - the extra money is welcome, and he's a regular guy - he loves to play with the big machinery.
There have been oil wells in Southeastern Saskatchewan since before I was born, but the main discoveries were made either southwest of here at Alida, or west at Parkman, close enough that most people valued the mineral rights they had on their land, but far enough away that the oil companies showed little interest in drilling in this area. Since Glen and I were married in 1983 we have leased these rights twice to oil companies for three years each time, but no exploration ever came of it. It gave us a little extra money at the time and the dream of what it would mean if they ever came and found oil, but nothing else.
Skip forward to 2004. The price of a barrel of oil is at a dizzy 50 to 60 dollars per barrel and the technology for finding and drilling for oil has come a long way, baby. A major find is announced just a few miles east of our land, at Sinclair, Manitoba and the whole area starts to reap the benefits of oil money. All last year Glen worked just a few miles from home and every once in a while we daydreamed that soon the oil guys would be knocking on our door. And, sure enough, early in the new year they started the ball rolling.
There has been so much to learn since then! Before, when we leased our rights, it was a simple procedure - they gave us a nominal fee to reserve the right to explore for oil on the three quarters we have rights on for the next three years. No exploration ever took place, no surface leases had to be hashed out, no rigs were ever brought in, no money was made, and no tax implications had to be considered. This time it's a whole other ball game.
This time there is very little doubt that they will drill. In fact, there is already a well site staked out on one of our fields waiting for the spring thaw to pass so they can move the heavy equipment on. We don't have the rights to oil revenue on this quarter, but we have had to go over the surface lease and make some changes so that our access to the land is not spoiled for farming. The people who do have the rights are Glen's parents, who are in their eighties and are kind of overwhelmed with the business end of having their mineral rights worth something after all these years. We've talked to more lawyers and accountants in the past month than ever before in our lives. At the moment we are at a stalemate - if the wells do produce there will need to be some sort of a corporation or trust put in place to handle the business and taxes, but setting these things up costs a lot of money so you don't want to do it until you know for sure there is oil production that can pay for it. There is a real need for people to learn more about what they need to do so Glen has been organizing a public information meeting with both the legal and money management implications to be discussed; between that and his cows calving on a steady basis, he's a busy boy these days.
One thing I will say is, that if anyone is looking for high paying work, Southeastern Saskatchewan is the place to be. Manpower says that they are looking to fill 1700 jobs this summer, a large percentage of them in the oilfield. Glen says it almost feels like we're in the middle of a goldrush and I'm not going to disagree with him on that. The thing I think about is that money can bring out the good in people, but it also shows the bad. It's not just a windfall - it is also a responsibility to use what you have wisely.
Pretty heavy thoughts from someone who doesn't have anything staked out on their land yet, eh? And, who's to say that it wouldn't be a dry hole if and when they do drill!
No comments:
Post a Comment