The first step to any lease agreement is education. What DPS Penn does best is informing each land owner about Chesapeake Energy and their role in the Marcellus Shale. DPS Penn Landmen work with a number of resources for contacting each land owner — mail, phone calls, house calls, and community meetings are just a few of these resources.

Second would be negotiating the lease. This varies mostly on size and location of the property. Land owners with larger tracts of land may have more specific needs for the property than a land owner with a smaller tract.

Then the land agent would have to complete the appropriate research on the property. This is called title or abstracting. Abstracting requires the Landman to run each property back to the 1860's, in the appropriate County court house. This is to ensure that the Land owner, that wants to sign, is the correct and proper mineral owner of the property. Abstracting or running title varies on difficulty; some titles may take a few hours and some may take a few months.

Once title is complete the land agent must complete the proper paperwork. Completing the title run sheet and typing up the lease are usually the quickest work the Landman does.

A meeting will then be set up for the land owner to sign the lease. After the lease is signed its filed at the courthouse. Then the land owner waits until the property's around them are leased and we have a completed unit for Chesapeake. Chesapeake then comes into drill and the land owner would then begin receiving their monthly royalty checks, which are payment for the portion of their land that contributes to the overall unit. These royalty payments will continue for the life of the well.