Colorado company makes second offer for Broome mineral rights

BINGHAMTON -- Exactly two months after an initial deal was rejected, Broome County received a new, slimmed-down $7.8 million offer for the mineral rights to some county-owned land, County Executive Barbara J. Fiala announced Monday.

The offer is from Denver-based Inflection Energy LLC, the same company that made the July offer that was rebuffed.

The deal, if approved by the legislature, would pay between $2,250 and $2,750 per acre up front -- the $7.8 million -- for the rights to 3,200 acres of county land, with a company option to extend the lease by five years for an additional bonus payment. That's down from $3,000 an acre that was offered in July for 5,610 acres, but much of Broome's most valuable and geologically favorable property near the Pennsylvania border was withheld from the current offer, Fiala said.
"I'm absolutely pleased" with the offer, Fiala said. "It opens up potential for the other acreage, which will bring possibly a larger price per acre."

Legislature Chairman Daniel Reynolds, a Democrat from Vestal, said Monday he was surprised to see a new offer come down "right on the heels of the last offer."

"My first impression is that it is very similar to the one we saw less than two months ago, but not as good of a deal," said Reynolds. "I don't know how the legislators are going to react, but I suspect that many of them will be unhappy with the proposal."

The offer will be subject to legislative committees before it is put to a vote, and Reynolds said he would provide opportunity for public input on the proposal. The offer will likely be added to October's legislative agenda, Reynolds said, since September's schedule has already been set.
The bonus payment would not be contingent upon the state Department of Environmental Conservation's ongoing review of the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement, a document that will guide the permitting process for horizontal drilling in the state's portion of the gas-rich Marcellus Shale formation. High-volume hydraulic fracturing -- a controversial drilling technique in which a mix of water, sand and chemicals is blasted deep underground to break shale and release natural gas -- is effectively on hold until the review is complete.

This is an extract from http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20100920/NEWS11/9200380/Colorado-company-makes-second-offer-for-Broome-mineral-rights