STATE COLLEGE, Pa.  ­­—­ Landowners leased with The Oxford Oil Company: Listen up.

Eclipse Resources has acquired The Oxford Oil Company, LLC, a company that has a large number of acres under lease in Belmont County and has been named a defendant in many lawsuits.

The Oxford Oil Company has approximately 184,000 acres under lease in Ohio. It will now be known as Eclipse Resources — Ohio, LLC

Oxford lawsuits

Matt Denezza, chief financial officer for Eclipse Resources, said he can’t comment on any ongoing lawsuits, but said each lawsuit will be assessed and handled individually on its own merits.

He said the company is not looking to sit on acreage, but has plans to drill on it.

“There’s a lot more potential for the landowners and what we want to accomplish,” said Denezza.

Thomas E. Hartnett, an attorney for the Feichter family who filed a lawsuit in 2012 against Oxford Oil Company, said he is not sure if the sale will have any effect on the lawsuit.

“After months of rumors (and despite denials from Oxford), it comes as no surprise that the sale was finally completed,” said Hartnett in an email to Farm and Dairy.

“In the short term, I think it will have little effect on individual landowners, as they are still bound by the terms of their individual leases.”

He added that it would appear Eclipse is in a better position to develop the Utica Shale as it has resources and experience in deep shale drilling.

The Feichter family filed the lawsuit in 2012 accusing the Oxford Oil Company of drilling a gas well through the Clinton Sands well formation just to stop the family from leasing their mineral rights on a 199-acre parcel of land.

Leasing land

Prior to the acquisition, Eclipse Resources owned approximately 41,000 net acres in Belmont, Guernsey, Monroe and Noble counties in Ohio where some of the largest wells in the Utica Shale play have been reported.

With the acquisition of Oxford, Eclipse Resources now owns approximately 90,000 net acres in these core Utica Shale counties, as well as in Harrison County, Ohio.

Eclipse Resources recently completed drilling a Utica Shale well in Monroe County with encouraging results, and has participated in five wells in Noble County that have shown strong initial production rates and high liquids yields.

Five drilling rigs

The company is currently running one rig in the play, but is looking to expand to five drilling rigs in 2014.

“We are extremely excited to have completed this very significant acquisition, making Eclipse Resources one of the largest acreage owners in the core of the Utica Shale play in southeastern Ohio,” said Benjamin W. Hulburt, president and CEO of Eclipse Resources.

“We are planning a very active drilling program in Harrison, Guernsey, Noble, Belmont and Monroe counties commencing immediately and continuing for the next several years.”

With the acquisition of The Oxford Oil Company, Eclipse now has an operational center in Zanesville.

In addition, Eclipse Resources also announced that Marty L. Byrd will join the company, effective July 1, as vice president, land.

Most recently, Byrd was vice president, land, Eastern Division-Appalachian Basin for Chesapeake Energy Corporation.

About Eclipse Resources

Eclipse Resources was founded in 2011 in State College, Pa. It is focused on the exploration and development of unconventional oil and natural gas properties in the Appalachian Basin.