NEW YORK, NY — “More than a year after Chesapeake Energy Corp Chief Executive and top Ohio driller Aubrey McClendon declared the Utica to be ‘the biggest thing to hit Ohio since the plow,’ investors, landowners and even the federal government are still in the dark over the true pace of oil and natural gas production in the state.
That’s because Ohio is one of the nation’s least transparent states when it comes to energy data – a distinction the industry worked to maintain this year, according to a review of legislative documents and interviews with state and industry officials.
Secrecy still surrounds the most eagerly anticipated drilling campaign in the country, one that began in the middle of last year when McClendon boasted that the 1.3 million acres of land the company had leased could hold oil and gas worth $20 billion.”
— Edward McAllister and Selam Gebrekidan, Reuters
