The rush for drilling rights for natural gas in Northeast Ohio is under way.
The Portage County recorder's office saw the number of leases jump from 101 in the first half of the year to 1,125 filed so far in the second half — more than a tenfold increase.
''We knew we were busier than usual,'' said Bonnie Howe, Portage County recorder. ''It's a little amazing.''
In Stark County, 836 gas-oil leases have been filed so far in the second half of the year, compared to 160 in the first half.
''We don't see it slowing down at all,'' said Cody Gonzalez, a spokesman for Stark Recorder Rick Campbell.
Similar increases have been seen in Columbiana and Carroll counties as natural gas companies interested in drilling in the potentially lucrative Marcellus shale secure drilling rights from private landowners.
The boom is triggered by a shale formation that lies under eastern Ohio and several other states and the development of drilling technology that can tap into it.
The drilling method, hydrau
lic fracturing — fracking, for short — is coming under fire from some who fear it will contaminate drinking water.
The drive to obtain leases that began in early August in Portage and Stark counties and earlier in Ohio River counties is producing millions of dollars in payments to Ohio landowners.
The natural gas from the Marcellus shale could be enough to fuel the United States for two years and may be worth more than a $1 trillion, according to estimates.
Intense interest in Marcellus shale began in Pennsylvania in 2008. The shale stretches 54,000 square miles under Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia and western Maryland. The blackish rock that holds natural gas is 5,000 feet below the surface in Ohio. It is deeper in other states.
Ohio at the edge
Ohio is at the edge of the formation and the gas potential is lower and the risk is higher in Ohio than the other Marcellus states.
Counties east of Interstate 77 are at the focus of Ohio's new land rush.
''It's getting much crazier,'' said Columbiana Recorder Craig Brown, whose office has filed 710 new gas-oil leases in the second half of this year, compared to 133 in the first half.
Brown said the amount being paid by gas drillers to landowners varies from $300 to $1,500 per acre, plus a standard 12.5 percent royalty on gas produced, he said.
Counties are busy
Carroll County has been ''very busy and just totally swamped, but we're getting through it,'' said Recorder Patricia Oyer. Her office filed 322 leases in the second half of the year, up from 180 in the first half.
In Tuscarawas County, companies have done preliminary research, but the leasing boom has not yet taken off, said Recorder Lori Smith.
Several companies are looking for leases.
The biggest player in Stark County is Ohio Buckeye Energy, which filed 428 leases in the second half of 2010, Gonzalez said.
According to its website, Ohio Buckeye Energy is an affiliate of Chesapeake Energy Corp., created to acquire Ohio natural gas leases.
Chesapeake Energy, with corporate offices in Oklahoma City, is the No. 2 natural gas producer in the United States.
''We are leasing absolutely and exploring in Ohio,'' said Scott Rotruck, Chesapeake Energy's vice president of corporate development. ''We want to take a look and see what's there.''
Rotruck declined to say how many Ohio leases or acres the company has signed up.
Five other gas-drilling companies have filed leases in Stark County:
• Sierra Enterprises, 138 leases.
• Ohio Valley Land Exploration, 116.
• Range Resources Appalachia, 68.
• Chesapeake Exploration, 52.
• CS Gas Properties LP/Everest Energy Institutional Fund, 45.
The leases vary greatly in size, Gonzalez said.
Under state rules, the drilling companies need at least 40 acres for each well. They prefer larger tracts to keep competitors away from their wells.
70 Ohio wells approved
To date, 70 Ohio wells aiming for the Marcellus shale have been approved, mostly along the Ohio River.
A few test wells have been drilled.
Chesapeake Energy has drilled four test wells in Ohio in recent months, said Tom Tugend, deputy director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' Division of Mineral Resources Management.
State permits are required before the drillers can begin operations.
Tugend said he expected drilling would start slowly and crank up if the initial wells are successful in finding natural gas or oil.
That's what happened in Pennsylvania, he said.
Higher natural gas prices, which recently have been down, and improvements in drilling techniques made it possible to economically drill down to the Marcellus shale, and even deeper Utica shale.
Tugend said it is likely that most of the leases in Stark County are aimed at the Utica formation, he said.
Oil also is sought
The decline in natural gas prices means some drillers expect to make more money from extracting oil from the wells, he said.
Tapping into the shale deposits has turned into a heated environmental and political battle, particularly in Pennsylvania and New York, with some claiming fracking is unsafe and threatens drinking water.
Drilling is booming in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. But New York has restricted drilling until environmental questions about the potential threat of the technology can be answered.
Fracking requires injecting large volumes of fresh water and sand into the rocks, fracturing them and freeing the gas. The pressurized water and sand keep the fractures open. Small amounts of toxic chemicals sometimes are added to the water and sand to make it easier to extract more gas.
Impure water returned
Some of the water used in the process returns from the bottom of the well as a briny, chemical- and metal-laden mixture. It usually is stored in open pits until it is trucked to treatment plants or underground injection wells.
The industry says fracking has been used safely since the late 1940s and 90 percent of today's wells require the technique.
Drilling experts say that because the fracking generally occurs 5,000 feet or deeper, it is very unlikely it contributes to cases of contaminated groundwater near the surface.
But opponents cite about 1,000 cases of improperly constructed wells, sloppy operations and drilling through shallow layers of methane that have contaminated drinking water across the country.
Some new wells might be on public land.
The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District is in negotiations to pursue new gas drilling, said spokesman Darren Lautenschleger. But no agreements have been reached.
The district, which has had leases for oil and gas for about 70 years, is not identifying any potential sites or the drilling company interested in acquiring the new leases, he said.
The agency, based in New Philadelphia, manages 38,000 acres of land and 16,000 acres of water in 13 counties that stretch from Akron to the Ohio River in eastern Ohio. It has significant holdings in Carroll, Harrison and Tuscarawas counties.
Akron also had a preliminary offer to drill on other city-owned watershed land in Portage County, but no deals have been made, said Mike McGlinchy, head of the Akron Public Utilities Bureau.
