I just read an article from Marcellus Drilling News.  It points out that the best producing gas wells in Ohio are in Belmont and Monroe Counties — right across the Ohio River from Tyler, Wetzel, and Marshall Counties here in West Virginia.

Make sure you do some research on the value of your minerals before you lease them.  There’s no reason (unless there’s some geology that I don’t know about) for Tyler, Wetzel, and Marshall to be less valuable than Belmont and Monroe.  Belmont and Monroe have been commanding $5,000 to $8,000 per net mineral acre for a bonus.

Granted, bonus amounts may change in the coming months due to oil prices dropping like rocks, but for now they’re stable.  Don’t forget, however, that the Marcellus play in WV is the most economic play in the country, so drillers here can weather a drop in energy prices better than most.

To pile on, Stone Energy just brought in the Pribble 6H well in the Utica/Point Pleasant in Wetzel County.  It’s producing huge numbers, 30 MMcf per day.  And Magnum Hunter is getting 45.6 MMcf per day from it’s Stewart Winland well in Tyler County.

West Virginia minerals are valuable.  Don’t sell yourself short.