Western Reserve Petroleum

Western Reserve Petroleum has just snapped up lease rights to 4,500 acres in the past few weeks in Jefferson and Harrison Counties in eastern Ohio, located close to the border of West Virginia and not far from Pittsburgh, a prime Marcellus Shale region.

With one company locking up about 4,500 acres for oil and natural gas exploration over the past two weeks, Jefferson County property owners appear to be getting their own taste of the Marcellus Shale rush.

While companies such as Chesapeake Appalachia, A B Resources, CNX Gas Corp., Dominion Exploration and others are gobbling up property rights in West Virginia, Western Reserve Petroleum is quickly staking its claim to the oil and gas rights in eastern Ohio.

“It has taken us less than two weeks to acquire 4,500 acres in Jefferson and Harrison counties,” said Molly Johnson Phillips, lease acquisition manager for Western Reserve. “We are glad to give some smaller landowners a chance to get in on this.”

Western Reserve is not disclosing how much they are paying for the leases. Recent deals just across the border in West Virginia have seen a signing bonus of $3,600 per acre and royalty payments between 12 and 19 percent.

*The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register (May 30) – Gas Rush On In Jefferson