OHIO Wells drilled on property mean profit for landowners

Stark County has been the busiest location in Ohio for two years.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Higher oil and natural-gas prices mean more money for everyone involved in production, including cities that receive payments from wells drilled on their land.
In general, a property owner could earn anywhere from pocket change to $100,000 a year by allowing drilling for natural gas or oil, Tom Tugend, deputy chief of the state Division of Mineral Resources Management, said Thursday.
Landowners pocketed $58 million for drilling rights in 2002 in Ohio, and the city of Cleveland hopes natural-gas wells will provide some relief for its strapped budget.
While the number of wells in Ohio remained stable, the value of oil and gas produced last year increased 47 percent to $708 million, Tugend said.
New ones in Ohio
Ohio had about 508 new wells drilled last year and capped 500 others.
Tugend said the start of drilling this week at a Cleveland-owned golf course was typical of the way Ohio drilling companies have sought new locations.
In recent years, drillers have set up rigs on federal land near Warren, land owned by Canton and property owned by churches and country clubs.
"It's not that unusual," Tugend said.
Ohio has nearly 63,000 natural-gas and oil wells, including wells drilled last year in 44 of Ohio's 88 counties. Almost all counties in the eastern half of Ohio have wells, the division said.
For two years in a row, Stark County, which includes Canton and Massillon, has been the busiest location for new oil and natural-gas wells, with 55 new wells in 2002 and 43 new wells last year.
Canton has 15 wells on city-owned land outside the city limits at current or former water treatment plant locations. Royalties peaked at nearly $523,000 in 1985 and were about $41,000 last year, said Tracy Mills, water pollution control center superintendent.
Last year's output
Last year Ohio produced 5.6 million barrels of oil and more than 93 billion cubic feet of natural gas, about 12 percent of the state's consumption.
Cleveland's newest drilling venture is in nearby Highland Heights at the city-owned Highland Park golf course.
Akron-based Bass Energy began drilling the first well behind the clubhouse and plans to drill six more this summer. Bass Energy is responsible for the initial investment -- about $200,000 per well -- and will share profits with the city.
Joel Rudicil, a partner at Bass Energy, expects Cleveland will net about $150,000 per well over the life of the wells. The city is looking at other sites as well.
"In 10 years, the city can reasonably expect to collect $1 million from that field," he said.
Once a well is dug, it will be capped, surrounded with a fence and attached to a pipeline.