The Bureau of Land Management Eastern States will hold an oil and gas lease auction March 22. Two parcels totaling approximately 345 acres of land in the Marietta Unit of the Wayne National Forest, Ohio’s only national forest, will be auctioned for oil and gas leases, according to a BLM news release.
Those leases could lead to hydraulic fracturing — also known as fracking. Fracking is the process in which pressurized liquid fractures rock to release gas.
Discussions to lease public land in Wayne National Forest began in 2015, Chris Rose, a spokesperson for BLM in Washington, said in a previous Post report.
Oil and gas leases are valid for 10 years and can remain valid for longer if oil or gas is produced. Although parcels are being leased, developers have 10 years to apply to drill on the land, so development may not begin immediately, according to that previous Post report.
A protest period in which the public can protest the lease of a parcel is open until Feb. 20.
