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Show Firm Offers Advice to Landowners on Mineral Leasinq ... .1 I.. ... ..- I .1 .it I .... i . l . . . iiiitu'i'-'l leases ' " (0 RllOrt tile IIUMVh IJ0,VU-r iS U'W '".111 ' v'vtln lvU lHV'IUS0 lack ,.f knowledge about tho nmui.il-. industry. So sas William ,. Su-ven. son, head of Resource Management Man-agement .m.my, a Salt lake lty based firm design- 'd to advise landowners on liow to not the most out of Hi" niiiHTal rights on their lands. I.e:isiuK of lands to oil and mining communes and .spec-ulators .spec-ulators has become an increasingly in-creasingly popular and profitable prof-itable aelivity for lntermoun-t.iin lntermoun-t.iin Aiva landowners with Hie resurgence of mineral exploration ex-ploration and development in 1,10 ''I'fium. The aeiivity in oil and gas exploration and drill, mg has been increasing rap-'it'Lv rap-'it'Lv in Utah during the past three years, sparking leasing activity tliroughout the state. But, Stevenson says, there are several reasons why the average landowner gets an average of two-thirds less than the mineral lease speculator spec-ulator for land with the same economic potential. "Most landowners have little lit-tle or no geologic information informa-tion on their own land, while a professional in the mineral leasing field can inform himself him-self readily on the economic potential of a region for minerals," mi-nerals," Sievenson says. "Jn addition, the professional probably has drilling and exploration ex-ploration experience, information infor-mation on other lease ownership own-ership in the region, and experience ex-perience in offering and marketing mar-keting lands for lease. In short, the professional lease speculator has a good idea ot what is a fair price for his land while the landowner is operating pretty much in the dark. It's no wonder that the average landowner just takes what is offered him and signs the lease." Another way in which landowners land-owners lose out on lease revenue, re-venue, according to Sievenson, Sieven-son, is that major oil companies com-panies or mineral develop -n.ent companies usually do not sign the individual landowner land-owner to a lease until just before they are ready to work the region primarily because going out in the field and signing up u landowner is more trouble (and expense) ex-pense) than signing agree-mets agree-mets willi lease speculators who very often seek out the majors with their leases. This is money lost to the landowner because he was not nware that a company held oilier leases in his area. "In fact, lands under lease to speculators may be developed devel-oped before more likely lands held by the landowner," notes not-es Stevenson. "The speculator specula-tor will often assemble the geologic information on tho region, tie up a lease block and take the package to the oil company. The company takes it because part of their work is already done for them." Stevenson has been hi the mineral leasing business for 1-1 years. He has been a lease speculator, has put together to-gether and sold drilling programs, pro-grams, and drilled wolls using us-ing his own capital. He estimates es-timates he has probably held under lease lor mineral rights over a million acres. His company offers the landowner a wide range of services involved with leasing leas-ing mineral rights. |