Noble Energy Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Companies Bid Millions to Drill Under State Lands in W.Va.

Companies have bid millions of dollars to drill for oil and natural gas beneath several state-owned lands in West Virginia.

On Friday, the state Department of Commerce opened bids for Marcellus shale fracking under several tracts of land.

Antero ResourceFish s bid about $8,100 per acre, or $2.3 million total, for mineral rights under Jug Wildlife Management Area in Tyler County. Jay-Bee Production Company bid between $5,000 and about $16,300 per acre for different parts of the same land.

Noble Energy bid about $5,100 per acre, or $685,000 total, to drill under Fish Creek and adjacent land in Marshall County.

StatOil USA Onshore Properties Inc. bid $9,000 per acre to drill under part of the Ohio River in Wetzel County.

The state requires an additional 20 percent royalty on what’s extracted.

W.Va., Noble Negotiating Deal for Drilling Under Ohio River

West Virginia is negotiating a lease with Noble Energy for oil and gas drilling under the Ohio River.

Department of Commerce spokeswoman Chelsea Ruby tells The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register that Noble submitted the highest bid to lease a 1,400-acre state-owned tract under the river.

Ruby says Noble has agreed to pay $3,500 per acre to lease the land. She didn’t say what percentage of production royalties Noble will pay the state.

Noble spokeswoman Stacey Brodak declined comment on the deal because it hasn’t been finalized.

The state earlier leased 232 acres under the river to Gastar Exploration for drilling. Both tracts are in Marshall County.

Leasing state land for a drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing, commonly called fracking, is a new venture for West Virginia.

CTCs Expand Gas Industry Program, Play Outlines Health Care Issues, Huntington Prep's Title Hopes

Noble Energy donates $250,000 to the Appalachian Petroleum Training Center to help expand drilling industry programs at Pierpont in Fairmont and Northern Community Technical Colleges in Wheeling.
Eastern Panhandle audiences will have the opportunity to see a one-man play that focuses on issues surrounding problems with the health care system. Huntington Prep gets their first chance to play with for a national title finally having scored an affilliation with the WVSSAC.