For Sale: A Lease: Fort Worth Star Telegram

First Dallas/Fort Worth Airport and cities and school districts held competitive bids for their mineral rights. Then neighborhood associations got in on the act. Now The Lease Auction House, based in Fort Worth, aims to run an online service where landowners and mineral-rights owners can attract top bids for leasing their property. The plan is to hold bi-monthly lease auctions, and not just in the Barnett Shale.

“We saw a need in the marketplace for landowners to have a company assist them in the leasing process, not only to ensure that they sign a fair lease, but also to use our auction process to make sure that they receive the highest signing bonus possible,” Chief Executive Rhett Bennett said in a release.

The company says it is working with landowners across the country, “with heavy interest from states such as Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New York.” All those states have hot new shale-gas fields, such as the Barnett, Fayetteville, Haynesville and Marcellus. The Web site is www.leaseauctionhouse.com.