Title searchers for drilling companies invade county recorder’s offices

Title searchers for drilling companies invade county recorder’s offices

By KARL HENKEL

and Peter H. MILLIKEN

henkel @vindy.com milliken@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The recorder’s office at the Mahoning County Courthouse more resembles the bustling atmosphere of the stock exchange than the typical librarylike card room.

It’s been an invasion for the better part of the last year, said Noralynn Palermo, recorder.

But unlike the stock market, few words are spoken.

Many of the individuals appear timid.

Few actually live in Ohio.

Meet the faces behind the oil and gas industry. the ones who do the dirty work — if you count eight hours a day researching property titles as “dirty work.”

Title searchers — or landmen as they are referred to by Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corp., a major driller in Ohio — normally review public records to identify current owners of oil and gas rights, said Pete Kenworthy, a company spokesman.

About 100 title searchers are employed directly by Chesapeake and 400 more that the company has hired through subcontractors.

These searchers occupy the lunch room most of the day, spread their paperwork and laptop computers across the tables and plug their computers into the wall sockets.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.