Oil could be part of the answer to Branch County government budget concerns. A county commission committee yesterday heard details about a possible big gusher that could come in this spring on a piece of county owned property northwest of the jail. Steven Lucas, the owner of the oil firm that has been exploring the land for the last 3 years, already has 300-thousand dollars invested. He discussed the potential of the land based on similar sized wells in southern lower Michigan.
Lucas said generally speaking, the well could pump 100 barrels a day, and with current crude prices at 80-dollars a barrel, that’s 800 dollars a day, based on the pay out at 10% of the take, although the county’s share would roughly be just half of that, or 400-dollars, because the county owns half of the 40-acre parcel in question. The actual language in the proposed county lease is 12-and-a-half percent.
Lucas says he’s in negotiations or already has leases with 8 or 10 other property owners in the area. He says if the well comes in, it should produce for 3 to 5 years, for a total of 150-thousand barrels. The County could sign a lease with Lucas’s company sometime next month.
