Finally, 1st Well Drilled Under Ohio State-Owned Wildlife Area
It was a long time coming, but a driller finally sunk a horizontal well under (not on) an Ohio state-owned park/wildlife refuge. The Ohio Oil & Gas Land Management Commission (OGLMC) awarded a contract to Encino Energy to drill under the Valley Run Wildlife Area on February 26, 2024. On that date, the commission selected Encino as the winning bidder for the mineral rights to frack under Valley Run Wildlife Area in Carroll County, Ohio, as part of a broader decision to lease parts of state-owned lands, including Salt Fork State Park and Zepernick Wildlife Area, to oil and gas companies (see Ohio Awards Drilling Contracts for State Parks – Salt Fork Surprise). Encino leased three parcels at Valley Run for $1.05 million. The OGLMC’s decision followed a bidding process that began in January 2024 and concluded with the commission’s approval of the “highest and best” bids at their meeting on February 26 last year. And now, finally, Encino has drilled its first well under Valley Run. Read More “Finally, 1st Well Drilled Under Ohio State-Owned Wildlife Area”
For the week of Feb 10 – 16, the number of permits issued in the Marcellus/Utica to drill new shale wells soared. Two weeks ago, 24 new permits were issued. Last week, the number increased to 36 new permits issued. The Keystone State (PA) issued the vast majority with 23 new permits last week. Seven permits went to PennEnergy Resources, all on a single pad in Armstrong County. Snyder Brothers received five permits for a single pad, also in Armstrong County (meaning half the PA permits went to Armstrong). Range Resources was third in line with four new permits for a single pad in Washington County. 
A lawsuit that slipped by us (and is still playing out) that began in Carroll County, OH, has major ramifications for landowners and drillers across the state. The case is EAP Ohio LLC v. Sunnydale Farms LLC, et al. in which 13 oil and gas leases were executed in 2008 and 2009 in Carroll County, Ohio. The 2008 Leases contained an identical royalty clause that limited post-production deductions to three categories: transportation, compression, and/or dehydration to deliver the gas for sale. After drilling wells on those properties, EAP (Encino Energy) deducted several other items from royalties, including costs incurred for processing, treating, fuel, gathering, and trucking. The lawsuit tussles with the issue of how terms are defined and whether these “extra” categories are allowed under the lease’s language. 
Encino Energy wants to establish new oil and gas wells on Leesville Lake lands owned by the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) in Carroll County. The conservancy district’s board of directors is expected to consider a lease agreement with the company’s Ohio affiliate at its meeting tomorrow. The left is apoplectic. The MWCD manages over 54,000 acres of land in Ohio. Over the past decade, the MWCD has leased over half of that land for shale drilling. This isn’t the conservancy’s first rodeo with shale drillers. Encino is one of four operators the MWCD has leased with and is the largest of the four that leases MWCD-owned acreage.