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BP Looks to Get More Acreage, Start Drilling
BROOKFIELD, Ohio – BP Energy is likely to drill its first well in Trumbull County by early 2013, and site preparations for this well should begin toward the end of this year, a company official said Thursday.
"We're anticipating we'll be drilling a well by the beginning of next year," said Bruce Abbuhl, Ohio program manager for BP. "Site preparations should begin later this year."
Abbuhl declined to specify the exact location of the well, but added that BP is not finished with its acquisition of land leases in the region. "We're looking to grow our position in Trumbull County and elsewhere," he said. "Very shortly you'll see an ad in local newspapers requesting landowners and people who own mineral rights to give us an opportunity to lease those rights from them."
Three months ago, BP signed about 2,000 landowners and locked up some 85,000 acres in leasehold agreements in Trumbull County in a deal valued at $331 million in bonus payments. It has yet to drill its first well in the Utica shale.
"We're looking to expand our presence here and build a business both in and outside of Trumbull County," he said, and declined to be specific on other potential lease sites.
As of now, the company is performing due diligence on the land leases it's already signed with landowners in Trumbull County, Abbuhl said. "Our big activity over the next four or five months will be processing all the leases we've signed up, working through the courthouse and making payments as agreed to in our lease forms."
Abbuhl was among a host of speakers Thursday at the Yankee Lake Ballroom, where some 200 public officials and business executives gathered to hear representatives of the oil and gas industry, government and business organizations discuss the economic impact of energy exploration in the Utica shale.
The event also attracted a handful of protestors who oppose the energy industry's use of hydraulic fracturing, a method that calls for injecting a mixture of chemicals, water and sand at high pressure into the earth to break up shale rock formations to unleash trapped natural gas buried deep below.
Shortly after noon, eight protestors holding banners and props along state Route 7 showed up outside the perimeter of the park. About an hour later, Brookfield police officers arrested two protesters for trespassing as they entered the grounds and attempted to hand out brochures to elected officials.
The meeting at Yankee Lake was by invitation only and was closed to the public, a trend that one activist says is on the rise.
"This meeting follows a recent trend of private meetings between politicians and the gas industry held on private property, where protestors aren't allowed to be," said Annie Lukens, a member of Ohio Fracktion. "They're not telling both sides of the story, and this is an attempt to block out the other side."
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.