Ohio Utica Shale Production 2Q23 – Top Wells, Drillers & Counties
The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) released production numbers for the second quarter of 2023 late last week, and nobody noticed…except MDN (thanks to a tip from a good friend). ODNR no longer issues a press release to summarize the results as they once did. We’ve got the full spreadsheet with oil and gas production details for all 3,233 active shale wells in the Buckeye State. We’ve sliced and diced the numbers and have our usual Top 25 lists for natural gas and oil wells. We’ve added a couple of new charts summarizing the data, showing the total production for the quarter by driller (gas and oil) and the total production for the quarter by county. You’re gonna love it!
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The rig count carnage continues. For the seventh week in a row and the 16th of the last 17 weeks, the U.S. active rig count lost rigs. A lot of rigs. Last week, the number decreased by 10 rigs after falling by 12 for the prior week. The total is now down to 632 active rigs across both oil and gas. Oil rigs have now fallen for a ninth straight month, while the combined oil and gas count has fallen for four straight months. After losing three rigs two weeks ago, the Marcellus/Utica count added one rig last week–in West Virginia.
An out-of-state, paid protester locked herself to a piece of excavating equipment used to build the Mountain Valley Pipeline early Saturday morning in Montgomery County, Va. She used a sleeping dragon device (arms in a PVC pipe wrapped in duct tape). She was there for seven hours, causing a delay. Virginia State Troopers and Montgomery County Sheriffs finally freed and arrested her. The unnamed protester was charged with a misdemeanor, and bail was set at $2,500. Here’s the thing: She was there protesting the pipeline because it’s fossil energy–yet the device she used, the sleeping dragon, was made from fossil energy! What a dodo bird.
Last summer, Pennsylvania House Bill (HB) 2644 was passed into law, becoming Act 96 of 2022 (see 
Olympus Energy (formerly Huntley & Huntley) drills in the Greater Pittsburgh region, in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. Olympus owns a pipeline subsidiary called Hyperion Midstream that builds gathering lines to the company’s wells. Hyperion applied to build a compressor station on a recently approved Olympus well pad in rural West Deer Township (Allegheny County). The PA State Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) will hold a public hearing on Sept. 26 about the proposal. Grab the popcorn.
Columbia Gas of Massachusetts (NiSource) never quite recovered from a series of explosions in September 2018 that occurred with its local delivery pipelines north of Boston (see 
Over the past 12 months, the NYMEX Henry Hub price for natural gas (front month contract) has traded as high as $9.68/MMBtu (August 22, 2022) and as low as $2.01/MMbtu (April 13, 2023). Lately, we’ve been hovering around the $2.50 mark. One of the energy industry’s favorite parlor games is guessing where the price will go over the next year or so. Once a month, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) hauls out its dart board and makes a prediction. Various analysts and consulting/analytics firms chime in from time to time. Today, we have a price prediction through the end of 2024 from a highly respected source: RBN Energy.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Now the time to expand Utica Shale usage; Hydrogen brings opportunities, challenges for West Virginia; NATIONAL: Biden admin blocks off millions of acres from oil, gas leasing.