Sunday, November 20, 2011
Eastward ho! Drilling boom in Valley spreads from western townships
By Karl Henkel
khenkel@vindy.com
YOUNGSTOWN
Like a well-structured house, the Mahoning Valley oil and gas foray started from the bottom.
And after a leasing bonanza for much of the past two years in Columbiana County, recent activity in Mahoning and Columbiana counties is building upon that foundation.
Companies could soon blow the roof off the oil and gas boom, as the Associated Landowners of the Ohio Valley, a nonprofit landowner advocate, is prepared to offer 75,000 acres of Trumbull County land — the single-highest one-county acreage total in Ohio — to the highest bidder.
If an agreement is reached, presumably with an oil and gas giant, it would follow a northeasterly trend of lease acquisitions in the Valley.
Research of lease agreements by The Vindicator shows that big shale players like Chesapeake Energy Corp., after starting in Columbiana County, quickly gobbled up land in western Mahoning County, and now has targeted the county’s eastern townships.
Springfield, Green, Beaver and Poland townships have been the most heavily sought after, according to Vindicator research of Mahoning County lease agreements.
Of the 1,339 lease agreement signed in the county this year through Oct. 31, 889 of those have been inked with Chesapeake, and half have been signed in those four townships.
Springfield leads all townships with 141 signed permits; Green has 128, Beaver has 114 and Poland has 63.
Landowners in southeast corridor of Poland have reported heavy lease lobbying from Chesapeake.
Noralynn Palermo, Mahoning County recorder, has had a front-row seat to most of the leasing action.
Leases must be filed at the county courthouse for validation purposes.
“There have been people in here [from the oil and gas industry] for a year,” she said. “But probably about three months ago it really started.”
It’s a gradual shift away from the western townships including Milton and Goshen, which Chesapeake had previously focused on.
All 10 of Chesapeake’s current drilling permits with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources are within those two townships and it has already drilled a well in Milton.
Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.