Chesapeake Energy has employed a seldom-used Ohio state law that “lets companies add properties to large ‘drilling units’ even if leases with landowners haven’t been obtained” to force 24 unwilling landowners to take part in Utica-shale drilling in Portage and Stark counties, The Columbus Dispatch reports. The “unitization” law allows drilling companies with leases for “at least 65 percent of the unit’s acreage” to add unwilling landowners’ properties – even state-owned ones – to the drilling operation if the majority of landowners want to “legally exploit their oil and gas interests” and the use of the shale well’s horizontal shaft needs to go through the properties that aren’t leased in order to do that, the article said. For more, read the full story here.