Congratulations go out to Bob Rea and all of our friends at the Associated Landowners of the Ohio Valley (ALOV) for reaching a preliminary leasing deal with Chesapeake Energy for 25,000 plus acres across 6 counites in Eastern Ohio.

Below is the story as reported by the Business Journal Daily:

“They’ve shown tremendous interest in acquiring real estate in Ohio,” said Bob Rea, senior board member of ALOV. “This latest deal supports their position that they want to acquire as much as they can in this area.”

Two months ago, Chesapeake announced it had discovered a large natural and wet gas play in the Utica shale, a rock formation beneath eastern Ohio. The company has aggressively canvassed parts of eastern Ohio for about a year, including areas of Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties.

This latest lease covers land in Mahoning, Columbiana, Jefferson, Harrison, Belmont and Carroll counties, and includes more than 800 landholders, Rea said.

“We’re pleased with the negotiations,” he said. “There wasn’t a single dissent in the group.” Citing confidentiality agreements, Rea said he cold not disclose details of the lease. “They treated us very fairly,” he said of Chesapeake.

Rea noted that Chesapeake is one of several interested in drilling for shale gas in the region, but would not disclose the other interested parties. “We didn’t shop the bids,” he said. “I want to respect that because I want to do business with them tomorrow. We had some solid bids, some real good interest from the industry.”

ALOV was formed more than a year ago when land agents started extending offers to large landholders in southern Mahoning and Columbiana counties. The group wanted to amass a large pool of acreage among thousands of landowners to collectively leverage the best deal for those looking to sign leases with these large energy companies.

In April, an ALOV group consisting of more than 2,000 landowners and 75,000 acres across the six counties signed on with Chesapeake, Rea said.

According to sources, energy companies have signed hundreds of millions of dollars in lease agreements in eastern Ohio. In areas of Jefferson and Carroll counties, energy companies have paid as much as $3,750 an acre to lease property, and that excludes royalty payments.

ALOV still has about 80,000 acres in Trumbull County, and additional land in Tuscarawas, Portage and Stark counties.

Alan Wenger, a partner at the law firm of Harrington, Hoppe & Mitchell and counsel to ALOV, said the group has been negotiating with several energy companies since August.

“The largest number of these landholders are in Mahoning and Columbiana counties,” he said, noting that many members are looking to leave the group and perhaps close the ranks of ALOV.

“This might be their last hurrah,” Wenger says of the latest deal. “A lot of them have put too many late nights into this.”

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EID Ohio looks forward to building upon our working realationship ALOV and other groups like them all over the state as all Ohioians start to see the positive results from these types of agreements. With good corporate neighbors like Chesapeake and hardworking landowner groups like ALOV working together for a common goal we will soon realize the great potentail of fully developing Ohio’s Shale.

If you are a part of a landowner group please feel free to contact us as we are able to provide you with information that you may be looking for.