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Jeffery Swan and Keith Uruski of Conquest Seismic Services, Inc., (formerly Geophysical Applications Inc.), Inc. were at the Lansing Town Board meeting last week to ask the Board for permission to explore for natural gas beneath Town properties.  Their company is a sub-contractor to Ansbro Petroleum, a Denver based company that has been prospecting for gas in Tompkins, Chemung, Cayuga, and Cortland Counties.  "If you see those guys walking across fields and traversing the roads in the orange vests, that is indeed us," Uruski said.

The company has placed wells to the south east around the Corning area, and has one well on Elkendale Farm, just over the Lansing/Genoa line.  Ansbro has been approaching Lansing residents for some time in North Lansing to attain rights, and recently extended the proposed area of exploration as far south as Route 34B.  They approached the Town for permission to explore beneath Town roads and other properties.  "We are conducting a 3-D seismic survey in the Lansing area," Ward explained.  "Right now we're in the process of going out and getting permission from the landowners to conduct our tests."


Conquest  is a division of the Canadian Norex Exploration Services, Inc.  They are conducting the initial testing for Ansbro.  The process involves drilling small holes about 20 feet deep, and setting off dynamite.  The ground motion is measured by an instrument called a geophone, and a picture is developed in a grid pattern that helps the company decide whether there is enough likelihood that gas or oil deposits exist to justify drilling a well.

Ansbro Vice President and Chief Operation Officer Margot Timbel says that small track-mounted drills will begin drilling shotholes for the 3-D seismic survey next week, and the recording equipment will be deployed in the early or middle part of May.

Ward wanted Town officials to sign a permission form to allow the testing.  But Town Attorney Guy Krogh said that the wording didn't actually release the Town from liability.  "You can exercise due care and cause adjacent support failure to a neighboring structure, and it would be the result of negligence," he noted.  "It doesn't indemnify us from third parties who were injured by your operations who might lay a claim against us."


Krogh also said there could be a question of whether the Town owns all the rights for all of it's property, explaining that if land is granted 'in fee' the Town does own the rights, but it is possible that mineral rights may have been withheld in some cases.  ""In fee" refers to a hereditament in title," Krogh explains.   "That means that the Town acquired title to all legal and equitable rights in the property and has absolute ownership."

Timbel says that the first Lansing well location has already been determined.  "A well was staked and permitted across the street from Baker's Acres," she says.  "The stakes will come out of the ground for planting of that field. The timing of doing any work at that location is uncertain."

Board members were generally favorable toward granting the company permission to explore.  Uruski told the Board that the exploration stage should be completed in June if the weather cooperates.  If natural gas is discovered on Town property Ansbro would have to come back to the Board to request the right to drill.  Krogh agreed to amend the agreement, and the Board authorized Supervisor Steve Farkas to sign it once Krogh is satisfied with its wording.

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