Pay dirt: land demand in Cline Shale boom

WEST TEXAS - As Cline Shale boom expectations mount, the residual effects of recent increases in oil and gas industry activity are apparent in skyrocketing demand for property. Regional property demands are keeping pace with energy industry buzz generated as interest in the Cline Shale grows.

Cline, an emerging unconventional resource play on the eastern flank of the Midland Basin, runs roughly 140 miles north-south and is 70 miles wide through portions of Mitchell, Coke, Fisher, Glasscock, Howard, Irion, Nolan, Reagan, Scurry and Sterling counties.

Community leaders across the region have reported increasing demand for residential, commercial and industrial property. Interest in Snyder commercial property has exploded, with properties selling within 24 hours of listing according to Abel DeLorea, Snyder Realtors Association president.

Interest has shifted from Northwest Oklahoma into the Texas Panhandle, and now into Snyder and Sweetwater, according to Janet Black, a regional economic developer with Burlington Northern Railroad.

Snyder Rail Park anchor tenant WL Plastics broke ground on its facility in the rail park a year ago. WL Plastics began making pipe in June 2012, and became fully operational in September. The company employs 40 workers.

The $5.1 million Titan Transloading facility in Levelland is nearing completion and will be operational by April 2013.

Read more at the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.