A financial windfall for the state as a result of bids for Marcellus Shale leases has a Warren County Commissioner interested in exploring the possibility of leasing out sections of the county's Hoffman Estate.

On Tuesday, five companies shelled out more than $128 million for the right to drill for natural gas on Pennsylvania public land as part of the Marcellus Shale natural gas formation.

Geologists expect the formation to develop into the nation's most prolific gas field.

"(The $128 million) was just to secure the leases to see if anything is under the ground," Warren County Commissioner John Bortz said during Wednesday's commissioners' meeting.

The per-acre average bid for the state land leases weighed in at $4,100.

Bortz is hoping to see similar lease numbers come the county's way if it is determined Marcellus Shale gas is located under the 1,000-acre Hoffman estate.

The estate was left in trust to the county commissioners, who manage it.

Bortz said that he has contacted State Representative Kathy Rapp's office for details on the leases that were bid out on Tuesday. The winning bids were listed as:

-Chesapeake Energy Corp., 2,951 acres in Cameron County, $7.2 million;

-Exco Resources Inc., 4,639 acres in Clearfield County, $24.4 million;

-Seneca Resources Corp., 10,493 acres in Tioga County, $48.5 million;

-Seneca Resources, 7,441 acres in Potter County, $23.3 million

-Anadarko Petroleum Corp., 2,724 acres in Clinton County, $11.2 million;

-Penn Virginia Corp., 3,698 acres in Potter County, $13.9 million.

The state will received a royalty rate of 18 percent of production from the leases.

Bortz said that the commissioners had an informal discussion on Wednesday about the Hoffman Estate, as far as strategy regarding mineral development "and what the next step is going to be."

The Marcellus Shale formation extends under most of the Appalachian Basin in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, West Virginia, New York and Virginia.

In 2008, Penn State geosciences professor Terry Engelder estimated that the formation may hold up to 363 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas enough to supply U.S. Consumption for at least 14 years.

If the entire formation contains gas, Engelder said the shale could contain 4,359 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

This week Pittsburgh Business Times listed Pennsylvania General Energy, headquartered in Warren, as 15th of the top 40 companies holding state permits to drill in the Marcellus Shale formation.

PGE has been issued 42 permits and 5 "drill deeper" permits.