Oklahoma company chosen to frack Ohio wildlife area land in Belmont County

An Oklahoma-based company has been chosen as the “highest and best” bidder to lease land at Egypt Valley Wildlife Area in Belmont County and land in Monroe County for fracking at Monday’s Ohio Oil and Gas Land Management meeting.  

Gulfport Appalachia, LLC was selected to lease about 30 acres of land in Egypt Valley in Belmont County and just under five acres of an Ohio Department of Transportation right-of way along State Rt. 800 in Monroe County. The Egypt Valley land is property of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. 

“It is my view that the bid meets all statutory requirements, and as such, I believe should be selected by the commission as the highest and best bidder,” OGLMC Chair Theresa White said during Monday’s meeting. 

The commissioners posted the nominated leasing parcels for bid on Oct. 3 and the deadline to submit bids was Nov. 2. Each lease agreement includes a 12.5% royalty paid to the state for production, per state law, with an additional financial incentive paid by the winning bidder to the state, according to ODNR.

The lease bonuses for these nominations chosen by the committee is $151,795 for ODNR properties and $14,127 for ODOT properties, according to ODNR.

In January 2020, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a settlement with Gulfport Energy Corp. for alleged violations of the Clean Air Act at oil and gas wells in Ohio. Gulfport was required to pay a $1.7 million penalty and invest approximately $2 million in improvements at 17 well pads in eastern Ohio, according to the EPA. 

Fracking is the process of injecting liquid into the ground at a high pressure to extract oil or gas. Anti-fracking advocates from Save Ohio Parks shouted their objections while the members voted to approve the bids. 

“This is the definition of rubber stamping,” Cathy Cowan Becker, a volunteer with Save Ohio Parks, said after the meeting. “They didn’t discuss anything. They just voted.”

Jenny Morgan, another Save Ohio Parks volunteer, questioned how much thought goes into these decisions.

“We’ve never seen a discussion,” she said. “Where’s the evidence that they have considered these things?”

After delaying a vote at the last OGLMC meeting back in October, committee members voted to move forward on bidding for fracking about 884 acres of land at Salt Fork State Park. 

White decided to hold off on making a decision about 171 acres in Leesville Wildlife Area and less than an acre of land in Belmont County. 

“I propose we discuss and consider the nomination today and defer decision making on the matter for a later meeting,” she said, even though the committee members did not engage in discussion.

Becker sees this as just kicking the can down the road. 

“That’s what they did last time,” she said. “I don’t really see that it would be any different next time with the two that they held onto this time.” 

There were more than 1,400 fracking incidents associated with oil and gas wells in Ohio between 2018 and September 2023, according to FracTracker Alliance — a nonprofit that collects data on fracking pipelines. About 10% of those incidents were reported as fires or explosions.

During that same time period, there were 64 total incidents in Belmont County (where Egypt Valley is located) and 56 total incidents in Guernsey County (where Salt Fork is located), according to FracTracker.

Anti-fracking protest 

Donning Christmas hats, more than a dozen Save Ohio Parks volunteers sang Christmas carols with lyrics about the dangers of fracking before Monday’s meeting started. 

“Frackers go, frackers go, frackers go away,” the Save Ohio Parks volunteers sang to the tune of “Jingle Bells.” 

“Gone away is the bluebird, they’re all dead. Living in a fracked wonderland,” they sang to the tune of a “Winter Wonderland.”

Correction: This story has been updated with the correct amount of lease bonuses for the ODNR property. 

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