Shale Gas In Ohio

Cleveland Plain Dealer, h/t Ritholtz:

More than 3 million acres have been leased for drilling, with gas and oil companies paying an average of $2,500 per acre, meaning $7.5 billion has already been poured into bank accounts for the right to drill.
The study assumes that only about 70 percent of that money went to Ohio residents and that Ohioans spent only a fraction of that, as little as 4 percent. Despite all that leasing, only 33 wells were actually drilled in 2011, and just four are producing oil and gas.
Still, the study assumes that by 2014, gas producers like Chesapeake Energy, ExxonMobile and others will together drill more than 1,000 wells a year - and spend $6 billion doing it. Other analysts have predicted much lower levels of drilling in the short run: 50 additional wells this year, 100 or so in 2013 and up to 200 in 2014.

I'm a bit skeptical.  We'll see what happens.  I just find it crazy to imagine all that crappy ground in southeastern Ohio is worth, on average, $2,500 an acre for just that gas under it.  And that isn't even including royalties.  If a few producers go bankrupt in the not-too-distant future, I wouldn't be shocked.