Photo Provided A lone fisherman casts a line at the Zepernick Wildlife Area in Columbiana County, Ohio. Encino Energy Acquisition Partners, awarded an Ohio Department of Natural Resources lease to frack 66 acres of the wildlife area from a well pad 3.67 miles away, has been sold to EOG Resources. EOG now has the option to frack 1.1 million acres in Ohio.

HOUSTON — EOG Resources announced it will buy Encino Acquisition Partners for $5.6 billion.

Encino Acquisition Partners is a joint venture between the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Encino Energy of Houston, one of the largest oil and gas producers in Ohio with operations focused on the Utica Shale. CPP Investments is 98% owner of EAP.

EAP has obtained bids to frack several Ohio public lands, including:

∫ Valley Run Wildlife Area in Carroll County

∫ Zepernick Wildlife Area in Columbiana County

∫ Leesville Wildlife Area in Carroll County (along with other bids for fracking near Leesville Lake in the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District)

∫ Ohio Department of Transportation land on Ohio 151 in Harrison County.

EAP also bid on fracking thousands of acres of Salt Fork State Park in 2023, but withdrew those bids after the Ohio Department of Natural Resources placed additional conditions on the leases.

The acquisition of EAP’s 675,000 acres in Ohio will significantly increase EOG Resources’ Utica holdings to 1.1 million acres, representing 2 billion barrels of oil equivalent, EOG said.

“This acquisition combines large, premier acreage positions in the Utica, creating a third foundational play for EOG alongside our Delaware Basin and Eagle Ford assets,” said Ezra Y. Yacob, chairman and CEO of EOG. “Encino’s acreage improves the quality and depth of our Utica position, expanding EOG’s multi-basin portfolio to more than 12 billion barrels of oil equivalent net resource.

According to a release by EOG, the transaction transforms EOG into a leading Utica producer. The acquisition expands EOG’s core acreage in the volatile oil window, which averages 65% liquids production, by 235,000 net acres for a combined contiguous position of 485,000 net acres. In the natural gas window, the acquisition adds 330,000 net acres along with existing natural gas production with firm transportation exposed to premium end markets. In the northern acreage, where the company has delivered outstanding well results, EOG increases its existing average working interest by more than 20%.

Reaction to the news among anti-fracking groups was immediate.

“This is a great development for Canadian pensioners, who do not want their retirement savings based on making Ohio a fracking sacrifice zone,” said Cathy Cowan Becker, board president of Save Ohio Parks, a statewide citizens group whose mission is to educate Ohioans about the harms of fracking public lands.

“Unfortunately for Ohioans, it means more of the same: fracking that threatens our health, pollution that harms our wildlife and protected lands, carbon emissions that worsen the climate crisis, and billions of gallons of our fresh water turned into toxic and radioactive waste,” Cowan Becker said.

Save Ohio Parks and allied organizations collected signatures of over 1,300 Ohioans and others opposed to CPP Investments’ ownership of EAP operations that frack public lands. Save Ohio Parks asked to meet with the CPP Investment Board about the petition in September 2024 but did not receive a response. Meanwhile, Canadian organizations such as Environmental Defence and Shift Action had also pressured CPP Investments to divest from its 98% stake in Encino Acquisition Partners.

CPP Investments and Encino formed Encino Acquisition Partners in 2017 with a $1 billion investment from CPPIB. In 2018, EAP bought all of Chesapeake Energy’s Utica shale assets in Ohio. CPP Investments announced it was selling its entire stake in Encino Acquisition Partners to EOG Resources on May 30. Encino Energy will also be exiting from EAP, representing a full sale to EOG, CPP Investments said.

EAP’s holdings in Ohio, including EAP’s leases and permits to frack public lands, will be transferred to EOG Resources. Leases may be transferred from one lessee to another, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ standard lease form. Permits can also be reissued to a new owner through an application process with ODNR.

EAP’s leases and permits to frack public land will be added to EOG Resources’ own awarded bids, including Keen Wildlife Area in Harrison County and the Ohio Department of Transportation Malvern Outpost in Carroll County Houston-based EOG Resources was formed in 1999 when it declared independence from Enron Corp, where it had been known as Enron Oil and Gas. Over time the company obtained oil and gas holdings in the Delaware Basin, Eagle Ford, Bakken, Powder River Basin, DJ Basin and Eastern Anadarko Basin. EOG moved into the Utica shale of Ohio in 2022.

Goldman Sachs is its exclusive financial advisor and sole provider of fully committed financing for the transaction, the EOG press release said.