Natural gas has been making headlines lately as the media finally realizes the impact that a one hundred year supply that has been discovered will have on the U.S. economy. Natural gas has been discovered in abundance in several large fields across the United States, including the Marcellus shale and Haynesville shales. Landowners in Pennsylvania are reaping the benefits as companies like Chesapeake compete with others such as XTO for high quality leases. Land men rush into new areas or “plays” where oil and gas is discovered. Landmen, which is the term for oil and gas real estate scouts (both men and women) make deals with landowners both large and small for the right to drill on their property. A lease arrangement is negotiated, often through an oil and gas attorney, for the exclusive rights to explore for and produce oil and gas from the property for as long as the company has a productive well in operation. These leases, which may last decades, are worth millions to oil and gas companies. Recently in rural Pennsylvania a group of 700 farmers and homeowners met with Chesapeake representatives and were paid over $5000 an acre for the rights to drill. These checks are just the start. Once a natural gas well is drilled on their land these owners may see checks of several thousand dollars a month for many years.  According to one oil company representative lease payments may reach well over ten thousand dollars per acre in the most productive part of the Marcellus formation.

Natural Gas Advantages

When many people see a drilling rig they think of oil spills. Natural gas is one of the cleanest hydrocarbons to drill for. Oil based drilling fluids are typically not used. Water based fluids, which do not contaminate groundwater, are required for most wells in the Marcellus formation under Pennsylvania.  Once the drilling rig is long gone an natural gas well just sits there, silently producing natural gas under it’s own pressure from underground. This gas travels through a pipeline to factories and homes where it is used to heat and generate electricity. Natural gas produces half of the CO2 when being burned and the act of drilling for natural gas uses one tenth the CO2 that a coal mine produces. Natural gas does not produce acid rain or any of the dust and pollution that come from coal mines. Now landowners in Pennsylvania and West Virginia can finally profit from a natural resource without seeing their land dug up and hauled away.

For more on the abundance of clean natural gas under Pennsylvania and West Virginia see: The Marcellus Shale Formation