Utica Shale Energizes Deal Frenzy in Ohio

The US can become a net energy exporter is the government will let it.  But it won't happen under an Obama administration who prefers to see $5+ gasoline and having unemployed Americans freeze in the dark.

One of the latest hot spots for deal making is far from New York City or Silicon Valley—it's in eastern Ohio, where energy companies are staking claims in what is being touted as North America's next big energy field, the Utica Shale.

While the 170,000-square-mile Utica Shale sprawls beneath parts of eight states and Canada, energy companies and analysts believe the richest reserves of oil and valuable natural-gas liquids, such as propane and butane, lie in eastern Ohio.‬