COLUMBUS, Ohio – A panel of state officials sold rights to oil and gas exploration in a Harrison County conservation area on Monday.

The Oil and Gas Land Management Commission, which consists of a slate of members appointed by the governor, sold about 85 acres beneath the Keen Wildlife Area to Houston-based EOG Resources for nearly $212,000, plus 18 percent royalties on the oil and gas produced.

The vote took place despite the commission receiving hundreds of comments from the public that were overwhelmingly, if not entirely, opposed to allowing fracking in the protected area.

“I strongly oppose opening ANY of our state parks and wildlife refuges to fracking, as they were created to protect nature – plants, animals, minerals – and for people’s enjoyment,” Susan Righi wrote to the commission in April. “The proximity of fracking platforms, heavy truck traffic, flaring, off-gassing, spills, noise, and other inevitable impacts of fracking are in direct conflict with the goals of these areas. Vote NO to fracking in the Keen Wildlife Area.”

Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer have reached out to EOG for comment on its plans and public comments.

According to a depiction on the land nomination form, the gas beneath the preserve will be tapped via a drilling platform about three-quarters of a mile from the property currently owned by the Department of Natural Resources. It will be made possible by a technique called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in which a company drills thousands of feet vertically downward from a drilling platform before turning sideways and grabbing underground minerals. From there, operators pump a mixture of water, sand and chemicals through the borehole at extremely high pressure, releasing methane from the shale rock deep underground.

In addition, the OGLMC voted at its Monday meeting to allow oil and gas drilling beneath about 366 acres of the Egypt Valley Wildlife Area in Belmont County. State law protects the identity of the company that submitted the land nomination, and that tract of land will be put out to bid in October.

The sale of mineral rights under public lands was made possible by a law passed by bipartisan Republicans in 2022 and signed by Governor Mike DeWine. The legal process it enabled, which was the subject of lobbying by the oil and gas industry in both the General Assembly and the OGLMC, also included language that legally redefined natural gas as “green energy” despite its inherent heat-trapping properties.

Since the law was enacted, the OGLMC has sold mineral rights to 5,700 acres of Salt Fork State Park to West Virginia-based Infinity Natural Resources for approximately $58.5 million plus 20% royalties, as well as smaller parcels of land in the Valley Run and Zepernick Wildlife Areas.