A Texas energy company was selected as the “highest and best” offer lease Keen Wildlife Area for fracking during The Ohio Oil and Gas Land Management meeting will take place on Monday.
Four other parts of the state in Belmont, Monroe and Harrison counties – all Ohio Department of Natural Resources and Ohio Department of Transportation – also received approval for fracking from the “Highest and best bidder”.
These areas were approved for fracking during Monday’s meeting:
- Gulfport Appalachia, LLC had the winning bid for five parcels in Flushing Township, Belmont County for $18,666 ($6,000/acre).
- Gulfport Appalachia, LLC had the winning bid for 1,370 acres in Fisher’s Grove Park in Summit Township in Monroe County for $5,480 ($4,000/acre).
- Gulfport Appalachia, LLC had the winning bid for 2,846 acres gross area in Wayne Township in Belmont County for $17,076 ($6,000/acre).
- The Texas company Tiburon Oil and Gas Ohio, LLC had the highest bid for three Lots in Somerset Township in Belmont County for $6,545 ($5,500/acre).
- EOG Resources, Inc. – also based in Texas – had the highest bid for 84.66 acres in the Keen Wildlife Area in Washington Township, Harrison County for $211,650 ($2,500/acre).
Fracking is the process of injecting fluid under high pressure into the ground to extract oil or gas. According to the Centre for Biological Diversity.
The commission put the nominated lease parcels up for bid on July 10, and Friday was the deadline to submit bids. Each lease includes a 12.5 percent royalty paid to the state for production under state law, plus an additional financial incentive paid to the state by the successful bidder, according to the ODNR.
According to ODNR, the lease premiums for the nominations selected by the committee are $47,767 for ODOT properties and $211,650 for ODNR properties.
In particular, 40 properties in Salt Fork State Park and The Salt Fork Wildlife Area was removed from the committee agenda last week by the nominator. These parcels were voted on to move forward in the bidding process.
According to ODNR, commissioners declined to proceed with the bidding process for less than one acre of land in Guernsey County “due to a condition in the nomination that could result in the economic benefit being too small to warrant approval under the Ohio Revised Code.”
Fracking opponents
About a dozen anti-fracking protesters held signs in the back of the room during the meeting that read: “Keep parks as parks, not oil and gas fields,” “Enjoy God’s creation, don’t destroy it,” and “Hands off our parks.”
During the meeting, activists shouted various phrases and questions at the commissioners, including “rubber stamps”, “A place where fracking is carried out is no longer a nature reserve” and “Have you considered all the accidents that happen in connection with gas and oil?”
The commission members continued the meeting and did not directly respond to the activists’ interjections.
Between 2018 and September 2023, there were more than 1,400 fracking incidents related to oil and gas wells in Ohio. FracTracker Alliance – a nonprofit organization that collects data on fracking pipelines.
About 10% of these incidents involved fires or explosions. 64 of these incidents occurred in Belmont County, 59 in Monroe County and 26 in Harrison County.
Jenny Morgan of Save Ohio Parks said after the meeting that she was afraid for Ohio’s children.
“Our children need nature on a regular basis and they need it clean and healthy,” she told the Capital Journal. “I care about our environment, which affects our health and the health of our children, and we need those spaces clean.”
Follow OCJ Reporter Megan Henry on X.
Get the morning’s headlines straight to your inbox
