The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) issued production numbers yesterday for the first quarter of 2018. Natural gas production was up an astounding 43% over the same period last year. In fact, Utica natgas production hit a new all-time high of 531.3 billion cubic feet (Bcf) in 1Q18. However, Utica oil production was down 3.6% over the same period last year. Ohio’s oil production has seesawed over the past few years. It increased last quarter and the quarter before. But prior to 3Q17, oil production was mostly down. Once again Ascent Resources, founded by the late Aubrey McClendon, dominated the top 25 highest-producing gas wells (17 of the top 25). However, Eclipse Resources grabbed the top slot in 1Q18 with a well in Monroe County that produced an amazing 2.9 Bcf all by itself! Eclipse also (as in the previous quarterly report) grabbed a majority of the top 25 most-producing oil wells, with 13 of 25 wells on the list. The top 4 oil wells were Eclipse wells, all located in Guernsey County. Below we have the ODNR’s high level overview of the numbers, along with MDN’s own exclusive analysis showing: the top 25 producing gas wells, the top 25 producing oil wells, and then the top 25 gas and oil wells as ranked by average production per day. There is a difference. The longer an oil or gas well is online, the less it produces. Newer wells produce more. We show you which wells are not just producing the most quantity overall, but which wells are producing at the fastest (most productive) rates–even if those wells haven’t yet been online a full three months. We also include a link to the complete list (Google Spreadsheet) of 1,949 wells included in the 1Q18 ODNR report, in a more useful format than that provided by ODNR…
