Area residents speak out on gas drilling pros, cons

Joy-area resident: ‘I don’t regret a thing’

By Amy Widner

LITTLE ROCK — Carroll Wells, who lives near Joy, has nothing but praise for Chesapeake Energy, the company running two natural gas wells on his property.

“They’ve been real good to me ” Wells said.“I think what really impressed me more than anything was when my wife died in January, Chesapeake sent flowers to my wife’s funeral. They didn’t have to do that.”

Wells’ business relationship with Chesapeake is almost a year old. He sold his mineral lease rights for $125 an acre early in the Fayetteville Shale boom to another buyer. That buyer later sold the rightsfor 116 acres to Chesapeake, who started discussions with Wells in November/December 2007. (The remaining 80 acres are leased to another company that has not begun work.)

The two wells are on one pad on the edge of Wells’ property, less than a quarter of a mile from his house. They went into production July 4 and have been successful so far, and Wells said he has had no problems with the kind of things he’s heard others complain about: noise, inconvenience, roads through his property, etc.

He said he appreciates all Chesapeake does to keep the situation pleasant for landowners. Their efforts are apparent through the little things they do, he said, like wetting the area’s dirt roads to prevent constant dust from the trucks.

“They’re really trying to see to everybody’s wants and needs, but you can’t satisfy everybody,” Wells said. “But they’re doing the best they can, they sure are.” Wells was born and raised in Russell and spent his career in Little Rock, working for what became Union Pacific Railroad. He retired to his farm in 2002 to raise cattle, which he has continued to do. When the royalty checks start coming in, he’ll be getting 12.5 percent.

“When we bought this place 10, 15 years ago, I didn’t know what mineral rights were,” Wells said. “Nobody did. Nobody talked about mineral rights back then. If someone had said to me back then that they weregoing to separate them from my property, I would have said, ‘Sure, I don’t care.’ All I can say is God was taking care of me again, just like he always has.”

Wells said that the paperwork part of the process was daunting, as he thinks it probably was for many people who have worked out a deal with the gas companies.

“We’re just old country people just like everybody else out here,” Wells said. “They brought out the paperwork and sat down and worked through all of it with us. Some people have felt the need to get a lawyer for that type of thing, but I didn’t. You gotta trust somebody. You can’t live your life like that. And like I said, they’ve been real good to me. I don’t regret a thing.” - awidner@arkansasonline.com

Three Rivers, Pages 57 on 10/02/2008