PA GAME COMMISSION ABOUT TO BECOME FILTHY RICH

Here are some highlights from this new released report done by the legislative budget & finance committee!!!

PGC SGL #12 and #36, containing a combined 43,466 acres, appear to represent the most
valuable PGC property. Should these two parcels lease at the level of recent transactions, the
signing bonus would be over $249 million. Assuming a royalty rate of 20%, these lands could
eventually net the PGC $1.07 billion above and beyond the signing bonus (given $4/1000 cfe gas).


SGL #13 and SGL #57 consist of a combined 95,021 acres in parts of Luzerne, Sullivan, and
Wyoming Counties. This is by far the largest nearly contiguous acreage in the PGC portfolio and
much, if not all of it, is prospective for Marcellus gas. It is reasonable to suggest that SGL #13 and
#57, which is double the size of SGL #12 and #36, may well realize twice the revenue as the
former.

LINK TO REPORT

In response to this, Carl Roe Pgc exec director says that pgc owns only 24% of the rights in that area. So that still equates to 24 percent of over 3 BILLION. Or well over 700,000,000!! And thats a "median" range estimate based on price which very well could go higher! There would also be addition portion of the signing bonuse mentioned above. And consider that is for only ONE area of the state!

And they are still trying to squeeze one last license fee increase out of us beforehand! lol!!

Remember, the area in the quote i gave was also only one small area of the state, and didnt take into account at all other gamelands throughout other areas. NO matter how they go about it, its undeniable, They are gonna be the beneficiaries of one heckuva heap of cash.

I personally think they most definately need to be restructured before ever trusting them with such a significant windfall. Remember, this is already one of, if not THEE highest funded wildlife management agency in the nation, and our management is an atrocity. And with more money its only gonna get worse imho. They also lied to the oversight commitees about the potential of this income, and also to the public.

I think the funniest part of all is seeing those pgc family, friends, dcnr guys etc. who hate unified sportsmen of Pa and said they were crazy when bolgiano spoke of the windfall pgc would be coming into, are now eating their words, because its now proven pgc was lying out their patoot all along. lol. Now as i said, i couldnt care less about usp one way or the other, but must admit, that does make for some good reading.

I won't comment on the PGC and their profit, but I believe licensing should increase with inflation.

That said, my local WCO and her husband both work for the PGC. Their house happens to be about 400 yards ( as the crow flies) from one of my honey holes. And everytime I drive by that house, I wonder how bad the pgc is really doing, because those two, ain't doin' too bad AT ALL. That said, I know nothing other than that, and it's none of my business. Just sayin' is all.

We may not like it now but our kids will

With the current direction, Im very much doubting that our kids are gonna be liking things any more than we are, in fact its very likely... less.

"I won't comment on the PGC and their profit, but I believe licensing should increase with inflation."

Dont know why you'd think that as it may very well be 100% unnecessary. And superfluous. Kinda like throwing a dollar bill to donald Trump. This new funding and Also considering they are already the highest paid management agency in the nation even before getting this windfall, I dont think Id be overly concerned with "inflation". Course if you feel for some odd reason they will need your 20 spot or so, they have a donation accepting page on their website.

I may be wrong but I believe in my web cruising recently I saw where the PGC had leased some land for $900 an acre plus a 20% royalty. If true the $900 is less than average per acre but the 20% is more than average royalty. Maybe they are getting a bit both ways.

This report is straight from the PA legislative budget and finance committee, its their job to do these type assessments. I have no doubt they looked at everything as thouroughly as was possible to do.

I also have no doubt that pgc is very shrewd when it comes to these resource financial dealings as they always have been, and they arent gonna miss out.

No doubt about it.

the pgs does not own all the mineral/gas rights to all their properties.  here is a quote from Roe:
 
“I believe these cases are anathemas to a forestry model because we strive to create habitat which benefits wildlife. Unfortunately, in creating the report, the team based its recommendations and findings upon an analysis which is based upon the forestry model, not the habitat model under which we operate.
 
“We also were disappointed with the report’s examination of our oil, gas and mineral program as the analysis is superficial at best. To come up with an outlandish figure of $1 billion for the specified State Game Lands is beyond comprehension. If you use the data presented by the report, it rightly states that we only own 24 percent of the gas rights in the northeast region of the state.

“Nonetheless, the report includes projections that we could realize revenue in excess of $1 billion dollars, based upon assumptions that we own all of the mineral rights, an assumption that the report itself noted is false. The revenue projection also failed to take into account market factors and environmental concerns and limitations. To include such outlandish projections has no basis in the real-world limitations under which we operate."
 
 

No matter what the actual dollar value ends up being there is no doubt it is a whole lot of money and there will be a lot of fighting over how to divide the pie. My quess is that hunting and wildlife will go from the number two concern behind timber to number three behind gas,and timber. As much as some may not like it our best bet as hunters is probably to keep the PGC as separate as possible from other influences or mergers.

wayne,
trying to figure out why you are biotching about the pgc possibly getting much needed money? 
 
Anyways, our licenses should go up and be indexed to inflation.  Hunters, next to liberal eco weenies, have to be the biggest bunch of crybabies in the USA. 

"Hunters, next to liberal eco weenies,"

So you dont like liberal ecoweenies? Yet you support pgc??? lol. Now thats a head scratcher. I think someone needs to do their homework. Start on yahoo!. Keywords audubon + deer management. Then maybe throw in pa game commission. Educated yourself. If you wanna discus that issue start a new thread and I'll be happy to fill it up for you.

As for your views on fee increase, I dont think you speak for the majority of hunters. They dont support a fee increase with all the current nonsense going on. Therefore they shouldnt be FORCED to pay more, when dissent is at an all time high and higher than anywhere esle in the entire nation!! Especially when pgc very soon wont need the money one bit. Its pretty disgraceful imho to see Carl at ever single meeting whining crying begging and moaning so they can get an additional 15-20 million a year out of our pockets when they have a huge windfall looming on the horizon. Im still trying to figure out what to attribute that to, other than greed.

As for your "inflation adjustment" suggestion, imho, that a horrible idea. There were "checks and balances" put in place and for a reason. That circumvents them and is utterly ridiculous to expect a "independent" branch of government to go unchecked. Course im fairly positive pgc & dcnr & audubon would LOOOOOVE that lmao. Not hard to see where you got that from lemme guess hpa?

And as i said before, youre free to put your money where your mouth is. If you think Poor pgc needs your help, Pgc has a donation link. Use it. Same with anyone else who feels the same. Just leave the rest of us out of it. If/when a fee increase is needed and deserved, I'll fully support it. Not before.

In the "here and now" the drilling is mulitplying by the year.

Pgc doesnt need a fee increase to operate right this second. You may not be aware, but Pgc has over 40 million dollars in reserve. Meaning if they fall shy of funding for the year they dip into the reserve. They havent even been denting the reserve the last couple of years, last I checked a couple years ago they actually ADDED to it because funding exceeded expenditures. A couple of other very recent years, they withdrew only a mil or two. They are still sitting on over 40 million dollars before they take in one red cent of license, timber or other funding monies for the year!. You may want to view their balance sheet on the pgc website on the annual reports. Most years they are breaking right about even. They most definately would need a fee increase within the next 5 or pushing it, maybe even 10 years to survive, that is, if they didnt gain any other funding sources. But they are. And within the next couple of years it will become significant! But the drilling just started. And its increasing by leaps and bounds, and about to be multiplied progressively.

You're still counting chickens that haven't hatched yet. Lease acquisitions may be increasing "by leaps and bounds" ( they want to lock them up ). But actual drilling ( royalty revenues ) will likely be far more subdued. Natural gas inventories remain fairly high ( and prices low ). Until the economy starts heating up, this will remain the case. Marcellus drilling is an expensive proposition, and the gas companies aren't going to go after agressively, until the market ( and prices ) increase.

"You're still counting chickens that haven't hatched yet."


So are you by wishing to pay for additional expenses that cant be funded, that at the moment dont even exist, and by the time they do, they will be accounted for as Ive shown above. You overlooked the fact pgc has been breaking even on the balance sheet, and Youre also overlooking the 40 million reserve I pointed out.

Based on that Im VERY confident they can VERY EASILY and comfortably survive at the very least one or two more years and by then they wont have to worry.

Also the increases in gas funding within the next span of years (and yes next included) will increase more and more. Not all in one year but more than enough.

wayne,
Did you actually read the report, particularly page 11 of the report, or did you just cherry pick some big figures in certain sections (or the ones that were likely quoted in a news article or on the USP website).  The PGC can only verify now that they own the OGM rights to approximately 16% of their acerage.  Please see page 76 of the report which states that a full 69% of the subsurface rights to PGC lands have been severed, are unknown or are currently in dispute in courts.  On page 77, " Analysis for the purpose of evaluation is presented for game lands in the NE region.  For the purpose of this analysis, it is assumed that the PGC owns title to all acreage within these properties.  In fact, this might not be the case."  Quite a lofty aspiration when the previous paragraph totally refutes this assumption and the table following it also refutes it.  Just those couple of paragraphs tells me this report isn't even good enough to wipe my hiney with!
 
From page 81, "At present these statements are based on the premise that the PGC holds clear title to all the acreage in these SGLS (#12 and #36), and so the figures may be treated at(as) an upper bound.  Establishing clear title in favor of the PGC in the near future is UNLIKELY according to oil and gas attorneys familiar with the situation." 
 
The dollar numbers thrown out in the report are by far very best case scenarios.  Also, the report notes that the PGC should hire more people to work in the OGM area to maximize their monies from this area of revenue.  How do you go about hiring more people when you are on a shoestring budget and the legislators and "disgruntled hunters" won't support a license increase to fill current open positions, much less new ones? 
 
Also, if my math is correct, the 249 million plus from the leases up front for the SGLs shown (43,466 acres) would work out to be about $5,728 per acre.  Good luck getting that with gas prices what they are right now (even if the PGC had rights to every one of those acres).  There are several inconsistencies, half truths, and blatant fantasy scenarios discussed within that report. 
 
Conditions right now aren't as favorable for leasing anyways.  Gas prices are depressed and the "gas rush" has already cooled off some.  It will come around but, to better position itself, the PGC needs to have the people working in the right places to make sure they can capitalize on it.  Only way to do that is to increase and stabilize the funding and hire more qualified people.  That part I do agree with in the report.
http://wpsu.org/gasrush/blog/?p=32
 
Best figure I could find from 2008 lease rates was $3,800 in the SW and that has since dropped by quite a bit.  From the report, there were some leases from Sept. '09 north of $5000 per acre.  Will companies be willing to pay that on hard to access well sites/acreage?  I doubt it. 
 
Don't need to be "educated" when I can read a "report" and logically see the "flaws" in it with 15 mins. of reading.