Hyperion renews land options
Posted: Sunday, August 26, 2007
Copyright 2007, Sioux City Journal, By Michele Linck Journal staff writer
Hyperion Resources Inc. upped the apparent odds Saturday that it will build its planned $8 billion oil refinery in Union County, although some sceptics were unconvinced.
The Dallas energy company has maintained all along that it hasn't settled on Union County as the site for its "environmentally responsible" Hyperion Energy Center. But a number of landowners who sold options on their farmland received certified checks in the mail Saturday renewing the company's option to buy for the year starting Sept. 1.
All of the options filed in the Register of Deeds for the project, regardless of when they were signed, were set to expire at midnight Aug. 31. All called for three, one-year renewal periods.
Hyperion CEO Albert Huddleston told owners of optioned land at a picnic last week in Elk Point that the company has assembled 10,000 acres. Opponents of the project who have posted online what they say is a copy of the options contract, say Hyperion is paying landowners $25 an acre the first year, $50 the next and $75 in the third of the three, one-year agreements. If accurate, that's $250,000 for the upcoming year.
Craig Eidem -- who sold options on four parcels totalling about 400 acres, all in the area between Elk Point, and Spink -- said he was expecting the check. Referring to regulatory and other hurdles the company would have to negotiate, he said nothing has yet happened to force a site decision one way or the other.
"They have a lot of hoops to go through to know whether they'll continue on," he said. "It's got a long way to play out." Eidem said he believed that no matter when a landowner signed the options agreement, everyone who did would now begin a new period on Sept. 1.
Norell Quam, who sold options on at least 320 acres, said he also received a check Saturday. He said he "absolutely" thinks the energy center is a good project. "It's gonna put a lot of people to work," he said. "I think it's a great thing."
Quam attended a picnic last week in Elk Point, held so landowners who sold options to the company could meet Huddleston. "I think he's a great guy," he said of the CEO.
The certified checks received Saturday were written on an account of Woods, Fuller, Schultz and Smith, a Sioux Falls law firm. The accompanying letter informing recipients that the money was for exercising the first yearlong option was signed by Richard E. White, agent for the Elk Point Economic Development Corp.
The envelope also included a friendly note from Huddleston, mentioning the picnic, Eidem said.
White, now known to be a former Marathon Oil executive was a "mystery man" when his signature began appearing in April on the few options contracts that were filed at the courthouse. He signs documents as an agent for the local development corporation, working on behalf of Hyperion.
South Dakota law does not require options be registers, only land sales.
Messages left at the homes of members of the Elk Point Economic Development Corp. and at two numbers of Hyperion's spokesman, Eric Williams, were not immediately returned Saturday.
Opponents not surprised
Dale Harkness, a leader of the refinery opposition group, The Save Union County Committee, said they had expected the land options would be renewed. While acknowledging that Huddleston said the company has optioned 10,000 acres, Harkness said only one section, or 640 acres of it, is contiguous. He said he knows that by talking to people.
"There's a lot of land that hasn't been optioned," he noted.
Ed Cable, another member of Save Union County, said the group has kept track by various means of who has optioned their land. He said Hyperion has options on large parcels owned by "25 to 30" farmers, plus a number of smaller acreages. He called the total cost of the options purchased "far less than they've spent on PR."
Harkness said he knows of four people at least who think they're going to cash the checks for three years and still keep their land. And, he said, the company still has options on land in Burbank, along the Missouri River near Vermillion, S.D., the first local site it considered. He said the group believes it is keeping the options and plans to put trailers for refinery construction workers and then to dump the refinery's waste product on later.
At the same time, Harkness said the group doesn't believe Hyperion is really planning a refinery. He said it thinks they're speculating on farm ground.
Still a handful?
Despite the lack of evidence, at least public evidence, of its interest in any other location, Hyperion's Web site says the company began with 30 possible locations for the refinery and is still considering "a handful of sites." It states it is "currently working with stakeholders on other potential sites ... which will be available as those sites are announced to the general public."
Even before Hyperion announced itself to the Siouxland public, it generated plenty of buzz about an unidentified "Gorilla" buying up options on acres upon acres of farmland in Union County -- enough to warrant a number of stories in the Journal and other area media, as well as a Page 1 story in the Wall Street Journal.
Hyperion Resources Inc. upped the apparent odds Saturday that it will build its planned $8 billion oil refinery in Union County, although some sceptics were unconvinced.
The Dallas energy company has maintained all along that it hasn't settled on Union County as the site for its "environmentally responsible" Hyperion Energy Center. But a number of landowners who sold options on their farmland received certified checks in the mail Saturday renewing the company's option to buy for the year starting Sept. 1.
All of the options filed in the Register of Deeds for the project, regardless of when they were signed, were set to expire at midnight Aug. 31. All called for three, one-year renewal periods.
Hyperion CEO Albert Huddleston told owners of optioned land at a picnic last week in Elk Point that the company has assembled 10,000 acres. Opponents of the project who have posted online what they say is a copy of the options contract, say Hyperion is paying landowners $25 an acre the first year, $50 the next and $75 in the third of the three, one-year agreements. If accurate, that's $250,000 for the upcoming year.
Craig Eidem -- who sold options on four parcels totalling about 400 acres, all in the area between Elk Point, and Spink -- said he was expecting the check. Referring to regulatory and other hurdles the company would have to negotiate, he said nothing has yet happened to force a site decision one way or the other.
"They have a lot of hoops to go through to know whether they'll continue on," he said. "It's got a long way to play out." Eidem said he believed that no matter when a landowner signed the options agreement, everyone who did would now begin a new period on Sept. 1.
Norell Quam, who sold options on at least 320 acres, said he also received a check Saturday. He said he "absolutely" thinks the energy center is a good project. "It's gonna put a lot of people to work," he said. "I think it's a great thing."
Quam attended a picnic last week in Elk Point, held so landowners who sold options to the company could meet Huddleston. "I think he's a great guy," he said of the CEO.
The certified checks received Saturday were written on an account of Woods, Fuller, Schultz and Smith, a Sioux Falls law firm. The accompanying letter informing recipients that the money was for exercising the first yearlong option was signed by Richard E. White, agent for the Elk Point Economic Development Corp.
The envelope also included a friendly note from Huddleston, mentioning the picnic, Eidem said.
White, now known to be a former Marathon Oil executive was a "mystery man" when his signature began appearing in April on the few options contracts that were filed at the courthouse. He signs documents as an agent for the local development corporation, working on behalf of Hyperion.
South Dakota law does not require options be registers, only land sales.
Messages left at the homes of members of the Elk Point Economic Development Corp. and at two numbers of Hyperion's spokesman, Eric Williams, were not immediately returned Saturday.
Opponents not surprised
Dale Harkness, a leader of the refinery opposition group, The Save Union County Committee, said they had expected the land options would be renewed. While acknowledging that Huddleston said the company has optioned 10,000 acres, Harkness said only one section, or 640 acres of it, is contiguous. He said he knows that by talking to people.
"There's a lot of land that hasn't been optioned," he noted.
Ed Cable, another member of Save Union County, said the group has kept track by various means of who has optioned their land. He said Hyperion has options on large parcels owned by "25 to 30" farmers, plus a number of smaller acreages. He called the total cost of the options purchased "far less than they've spent on PR."
Harkness said he knows of four people at least who think they're going to cash the checks for three years and still keep their land. And, he said, the company still has options on land in Burbank, along the Missouri River near Vermillion, S.D., the first local site it considered. He said the group believes it is keeping the options and plans to put trailers for refinery construction workers and then to dump the refinery's waste product on later.
At the same time, Harkness said the group doesn't believe Hyperion is really planning a refinery. He said it thinks they're speculating on farm ground.
Still a handful?
Despite the lack of evidence, at least public evidence, of its interest in any other location, Hyperion's Web site says the company began with 30 possible locations for the refinery and is still considering "a handful of sites." It states it is "currently working with stakeholders on other potential sites ... which will be available as those sites are announced to the general public."
Even before Hyperion announced itself to the Siouxland public, it generated plenty of buzz about an unidentified "Gorilla" buying up options on acres upon acres of farmland in Union County -- enough to warrant a number of stories in the Journal and other area media, as well as a Page 1 story in the Wall Street Journal.
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