Land Appraisal-gas Well Nearby

[Terrel L. Shields]

Should there be a clean up cost associated with the gas well;

You were doing good until there. You cannot require a cleanup for a well not on your property.

Any assumption should be limited to assuming it poses no hazard to the subject and that it has no impact on the value of comparables (likely not any comps with minerals have sold and they generally stand out like a sore thumb since minerals might be worth more than the land itself.} Thus its value is going to be equally impacted as the comparables. Google earth can tell you how close the wellhead is to the property line

 

[CigarDad]

www.flower-mound.com/DocumentCenter/View/1456

Natural Gas Drilling and Its Effect on Property Values (Texas Study)

 

[Meandering]

Good article.
I'm bookmarking it.

 

[Meandering]

So with this part;


The court first
reviewed the character of the governmental action involved,
finding that the protection of drinking water was an important goal
that was furthered by the drilling ban and that this factor favored
the ban. Id. at 880 (“Given the importance of protecting the
community’s drinking water and possible pollution from new
drilling near Lake Houston, we conclude that the first factor weighs
heavily in favor of the City and against a finding of a compensable
taking.”).


Is there any land not included in a watershed area?
Couldn't this same argument be made across the country?


.

 

[Restrain]

Ok, here is my two bits both as a mineral and land owner in DFW and appraiser.

Most minerals are severed in Texas. I own mineral interests my father purchased back during the depression but was lucky enough to buy some land north of DFW that had minerals, retained them when I sold the property, was one of the early wells in the Barnett.

The disclaimer should run along the lines of the following

The appraiser has observed a natural gas well on the adjacent property. According to available information (you can research the land records from the appraisal district to see if the surface owner is also the mineral owner) the minerals for the subject property have been severed from the surface interests. The appraiser did not observe any surface contamination nor noxious odors from the presence of the natural gas well. The appraiser is not imputing any income from the natural gas well to the property. The presence of natural gas wells is common and typical in this market as it is part of the (insert formation name here) and does not adversely affect the marketsbility and value of the property except as otherwise noted in this report.

Now, if you run across owned minerals, you need to make a disclosure that you are not valuing any income from any subsurface mineral production. Also, be aware that if you are doing an oil well, you may have surface contamination and you may have noxious or hazardous odors in the nature of hydrogen sulfide, which is poisonous in strong concentrations

Drop me a pm of you want more info.

 

[Tim Hicks (Texas)]

As far as the valuation, you should look at the aerial maps of your comparable sales. I would bet most available sales would have gas wells quite proximate to them. If you look at rural aerial maps in north Texas is quite startling how many gas wells there are in any given market area. That way you address the effect on value by having sales with gas wells.

 

[glenn walker]

STOP and do your appraisal... Did the county or City approve the plans or building of the Subject ??? ** You are no longer an appraiser but have become a environmental expert with no credentials. Once again did the City or county give the builder the OK to build on that site ???

 

[Amy Perkins]

You were doing good until there. You cannot require a cleanup for a well not on your property.

Any assumption should be limited to assuming it poses no hazard to the subject and that it has no impact on the value of comparables (likely not any comps with minerals have sold and they generally stand out like a sore thumb since minerals might be worth more than the land itself.} Thus its value is going to be equally impacted as the comparables. Google earth can tell you how close the wellhead is to the property line

Yes, but contamination can meander, I guess I should have specified that; you don't miss a thing. I guess you are just a smarty cat! We had a contaminated gas station site I was appraising and they found that it went well over 300 yards northwest in the groundwater. Gas tends to travel over the water underground, which makes it easier to clean up, unless it has MTBE, which is water soluble. They pump it out and filter the gas out and pump the water back into the water table. I excluded any contamination from the appraisal. The environmental lawyers can hash all that out; legal issue. It is unreal how much contamination there is underground; very common issue.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

contamination can meander,

Yes, but a gas well usually isn't a problem & when it is it is usually obvious. Also much natural oil and gas is found even miles from oil extraction. The "contamination" Frack opponents claim from waterwells almost invariably prove to be biogenic gas, not thermogenic gas coming from depth.

It is unreal how much contamination there is underground;

Yes, septic tanks, spills , etc. I had a friend accused of a leaking underground storage tank (LUST) at his C Store. Put new tanks and shut down again. Bank foreclosed, sold cheap. New owner hired engineers who traced the contamination to the city motor pool who dumped oil in leaking open barrels quarter. The problem was never the C Store. No one told Max they cheated him out of his living.

Again, EA this away. Assume not an issue unless you see a raging flame shooting out the well.

 

[Restrain]

Natural gas wells have very minimal potential for environmental damage as oil is a very minimal portion of the output, routinely collected in a tank on site. As to permits, Texas has minimal permitting outside of cities. There are distance requirements between wells and homes, but routinely the 'footprint' is one acre for a gas well.