BY CASEY JUNKINS

For the Wetzel Chronicle

Ed Broome knows a thing or two about West Virginia’s oil and natural gas industries. After all, he’s been dealing in the fields for nearly 55 years.

So when Chesapeake Energy offered Broome $22 million for his 22,000 acres of oil and gas rights in Wetzel County, he figured it would be a good move.

“I didn’t pay anywhere near that much for it,” the Glenville, W.Va., resident said of the acreage, spread out on 250 separate plots from New Martinsville in the west to the borders of Marion and Monongalia counties in the east. Though declining to say how much he paid for the land in the late-1990s, Broome said, “I hope I am making out on it.”

Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy, parent company of local operator Chesapeake Appalachia, has been leasing land for Marcellus Shale natural gas development. The firm is offering payments at least as high as the $3,600 per acre granted to the Ohio County Commission for drilling at The Highlands and other areas of the county, with royalties set from 12.5 percent to 18.75 percent.

Broome, however, believed it beneficial to simply sell his land to Chesapeake for oil and gas development, noting, “It was just the right time to do it.”

Broome said Chesapeake purchased the developed land, as well as completely undeveloped property, that he owned. “Partial interest, full interest, developed, undeveloped – they bought it all.” Broome noted that his company, Ed Broome Inc., still maintains an oil and gas business, as he still owns more property throughout the state.