Current accounting rules allow retailers that sign certain long-term leases to omit the leased property from their balance sheets. (The basic rule is that omission is acceptable if the lease term is less than 75% of the useful life of the building.) But the Financial Accounting Standards Board may change that next year.
Much of the gas being produced, when you add in all the expenses including building gathering systems, purification plants, and accounting for the bad wells, lose money on a pure cash flow basis.