A local energy company wants to negotiate on behalf of the Village of Poland to set up a shale gas drilling lease.
The president of Sulmona Energy presented his case Tuesday to Village Council. He said the company owns a large block of land just off Western Reserve Road and wants to negotiate a lease with major oil and gas drilling companies, at $5,000 to $6,000 an acre, plus bonus money and royalties.
Sulmona is a local company, which would put restrictions in the lease to protect the Village. In fact, the president said there would be no drilling or trucking in the Poland Woods park, or Village property at all.
"What happens when they drill one of these wells is they start at a point, and then they drill under the property, and they frack under the property, and that's where they would extract the minerals from right there. And you would need them to sign a lease, because they own the minerals," said Damian Degenova, president of Sulmona Energy.
Degenova said this would be a fracking well lease for Utica shale drilling, not an injection well like the one that was recently shut down in Youngstown because of a possible link to earthquakes.
Village Council members said they'll wait to hear from the Poland Forest Board, and likely make a decision whether to sign with Sulmona at their meeting next month.
