when the industry became aware of range s successes with the new technique other companies began leasing property for development at skyrocketing prices the competition for acreage caused lease prices to escalate from historical prices of 1 per acre to 500 per acre then to 1 000 per acre and then to as much as 10 000 and more per acre 2
in order to protect their investments from price rises companies sought held by production clauses in their new leases and in some cases they looked to buy old leases for poorly performing wells and use the new fracking technology to increase profits 2