Anadarko Offers $3K/Acre + 17.5% Royalties for Utica Lease

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Coshocton County in eastern Ohio requested Utica Shale lease offers for 436 acres of county-owned land no longer being used for any other purpose. There was only one offer put on the table, by Anadarko. Under the five-year lease offer, the county would receive a $1.3 million signing bonus ($3,000 per acre) and 17.5 percent in royalties.

Coshocton County could receive $1.3 million up front and 17.5 percent royalty payments on any oil or gas taken from property in White Eyes and Crawford townships, according to a five-year lease proposal.

Anadarko E & P Co. LLC, offered $3,000 per acre for a five-year lease on oil and gas rights on county-owned property after the commissioners advertised for proposals. The acreage, between 420 and 436 acres, was leased for more than 70 years to the federal government as part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture Research Service North Appalachian Experimental Watershed.

The facility is closing down this year because of federal budget cuts, and the ground is no longer under lease to the program.

Commissioners will forward the oil and gas lease proposal onto the Coshocton County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for legal review.

While exploration, drilling and development costs would not be deducted from any royalty, taxes such as severance or other excise taxes, and costs incurred to transport, process and stabilize the product would be.*

*Coshocton Tribune (Feb 6, 2012) – Commissioners: Only one offer, but it was substantial for oil, gas rights lease