Editor's Note: Given the time it takes to build our newsletter, it is not possible to put last month's report in The Geospatial Times. Here are hyperlinks if you would like to check out the most recent version of either our monthly or weekly Marcellus-Utica leasing reports.

Between the Marcellus and Utica Shale basins, there is an estimated 5.5 billion barrels of oil, 3.4 billion barrels of natural gas liquids and 100 trillion cubic feet of natural gas – making it one of the most significant plays in North America, much of which is currently untapped. Without a source of up-to-date and accurate maps of leasing activity, energy development decisions can take longer than would be ideal and is often desired. Understanding this need, Apollo Mapping, in conjunction with our Pennsylvania-based partner Surfside Abstracting/Jim Bourbeau Land Service, is proud to offer the first-ever comprehensive database of Marcellus and Utica leases.

As a free service to the energy industry and local community, we offer weekly and monthly reports of the leasing activity in Ohio and Pennsylvania. During the month of January 2012, we recorded more than 19,000 leases with the most activity in Guernsey, OH with shington, PA and Belmont, OH trailing in second and third respectively. We are also seeing increased leasing activity in West Virginia hence the addition of these counties to our weekly reports. These WV updates are not frequent enough to include in our monthly rankings however. If you are interested in signing up for our free weekly email service, you can do so here.

Our leasehold database contains 134 counties covering the productive acres of the Marcellus and Utica Shale plays with the bulk in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Our leases are updated at least once every other week with weekly updates to more than a third of the counties. We track and update the key attributes that impact energy development decisions including lessee, lessor, lease expiration dates, royalty and bonus payments as well as formation specific and top leased tracts. If you are interested in finding out more about this database, you can let us know here.

Below is a list of the 10 most active Ohio and Pennsylvania counties as measured by the number of Marcellus and Utica leases registered with the county during December 2011. If you would like a complete list which includes more than 30 active counties, let us know by email and we will gladly send it along.

1. Guernsey, OH – 1,337
2. Washington, PA - 987
3. Belmont, OH – 917
4. Stark, OH - 746
5. Bradford, PA - 710
6. Westmoreland, PA - 695
7. Lawrence, PA - 613
8. Susquehanna, PA - 554
9. Harrison, OH – 531
10. Beaver, PA – 499