Hopewell Township in Washington County, Pennsylvania is the state’s single most densely drilled township. Leases in Hopewell go back to the 2005, the dawn of the modern shale gas drilling age in PA, and the driller who holds almost all of the leases in Hopewell is Range Resources, the company that sank the very first Marcellus Shale well which happened to be in Mt. Pleasant Township, which borders Hopewell (drilled in 2004).
Most of the residents of Hopewell have a tie to the shale drilling industry—either as landowners with leases or with jobs working directly or indirectly with the drilling industry. But that doesn’t mean landowners in Hopewell are getting top dollar for leasing their property. Quite the contrary. This is a cautionary tale about waiting too long to lease in hopes of getting a better price…
