Encino Offered OH $1.8B Deal to Drill Under Salt Fork State Park
Yeah, you read the headline correctly. Encino Energy offered the State of Ohio $1.8 BILLION (estimated) to drill for natural gas and oil under Salt Fork State Park, located in Guernsey County, OH. The park includes 17,229 acres of land and 2,952 acres of water. In December, Encino made an offer to the state immediately after House Bill (HB) 507 passed. The offer includes a payment of $5,500 per acre as a signing bonus and 20% royalties. No drilling would be done inside the park. All drilling would be done on land surrounding (on the outside of) the park.
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New shale permits issued for Feb. 13-19 in the Marcellus/Utica remained elevated last week. There were 35 new permits issued in total last week (down slightly from 40 the week before), including 27 new permits for Pennsylvania, three new permits for Ohio, and five permits issued in West Virginia. Last week the top receiver of new permits was Coterra Energy, with 13 new permits for Susquehanna County, PA. The number two permittee was Apex Energy with five permits in Westmoreland County, PA.
It’s rare these days to come across information about the terms of a lease deal. Back in the day, when leasing was still going strong and there were a number of landowner coalitions, we would learn of lease terms and share them here on MDN. When we hear of lease terms nowadays, it’s almost always a deal between a municipality or governmental entity and a driller, forcing the information to be made public. We have one such deal to share today. Earlier this week, the East Guernsey Local School District Board of Education (in Lore City, Guernsey County, Ohio) voted to approve an oil/gas lease with Encino Energy.
Select Energy Services (SES) continues to expand with mergers and acquisitions. Earlier this year, SES bought out and merged in Nuverra Environmental Solutions (formerly Heckmann) for $45 million (see