To extract natural gas through hydraulic fracturing, energy companies often need to obtain consent from many different private landowners, whose properties lie atop the gas reservoir. Negotiations with these landowners have important economic, environmental and social implications. In this paper we present a dataset on negotiations in Ohio and use these data to investigate how landowners may be advantaged or disadvantaged in these lease negotiations. We find that they are disadvantaged in two ways. First, because energy companies can use persistent and personal strategies to overcome landowner reluctance. Second, because of the institutional context: specifically the widespread use of compulsory unitization. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for equity in energy policy and by drawing out the other potential uses of these data.

为了通过水力压裂开采天然气，能源公司通常需要获得许多不同私人土地所有者的同意，这些土地所有者的财产位于气藏顶部。与这些土地所有者的谈判具有重要的经济、环境和社会影响。在本文中，我们提供了俄亥俄州谈判的数据集，并使用这些数据来调查土地所有者在这些租赁谈判中如何受益或不利。我们发现他们在两个方面处于不利地位。首先，因为能源公司可以使用持久的个人策略来克服土地所有者的不情愿。其次，由于制度背景：特别是强制单元化的广泛使用。最后，我们讨论了这些发现对能源政策公平性的影响，并指出了这些数据的其他潜在用途。