UNIVERSITY PARK -- If you own land in northern or southwestern Pennsylvania, you already may have been approached to lease your property for natural-gas exploration.

But before you sign on the dotted line, you should gather -- and completely understand -- as much information as possible about the legal, economic and environmental implications for you and your neighbors, according to Penn State Cooperative Extension officials.

To help Pennsylvania residents make informed decisions, the Cooperative Extension is offering a free publication, "Natural Gas Exploration: A Landowner's Guide to Leasing Land in Pennsylvania." The guide complements information that has been delivered to more than 20,000 people at Extension educational workshops across the state.

The pace of gas exploration accelerated this year after joint research by Penn State and the State University of New York at Fredonia suggested that the Marcellus shale, a geologic formation that stretches across a large part of northern and western Pennsylvania and into neighboring states, may contain more than 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, at least 10 percent of which -- up to $1 trillion worth -- could be recovered with new drilling technology. And that has gas companies, landowners and rural communities scrambling to tap into this energy bonanza's potential profits.

"The flurry of activity and potential financial windfalls surrounding natural-gas reserves may be exciting for landowners, but the leasing and drilling processes can lead to a lot of confusion and may have unintended consequences," said Tom Murphy, Extension educator in Lycoming County and a member of Extension's natural-gas exploration and leasing team.

"We hope this guide will help property owners better understand the issues so they can make better decisions for their land and their families," he said.

The guide is organized into sections covering the following topics:

n Where is the gas?

n Where and how does drilling take place?

n How are landowners involved in the gas-exploration process?

n Gas-leasing process and terms

n Components of a gas lease

n Making decisions about gas leasing

n Gas-lease language

n The role of legal counsel