Shell Drills 2 Successful Utica Wells in NEPA Marcellusland
Shell has had an on-again, off-again, on-again love affair with North American shale (can anyone say “schizophrenia”?). In March, Shell’s new CEO Ben van Beurden said the company was not impressed with American shale plays and cutting back (see Cuts Coming to Shell’s Marcellus Shale Operations). Shell proceeded to sell 208,000 Marcellus Shale acres in a fire sale to Rex Energy, and a few days later picked up another 155,000 Marcellus Shale acres as part of a larger deal to unload other shale play acreage (see After Selling 208K Marcellus Acres, Shell “Buys” 155K More Acres!). Talk about schizophrenic! Now we get word from Shell that they’ve achieved something truly noteworthy: they’ve drilled six Utica wells in northeastern Pennsylvania! Yesterday Shell released initial production results for two of the six, and the numbers are truly impressive…
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Long before the words “Marcellus” and “Utica” entered the public discourse and consciousness of Ohioans, there was the Clinton Sandstone. For years conventional drillers have been sinking wells in the Clinton, which is found 4,500 feet below the surface (the Marcellus and Utica Shale layers are deeper). The Clinton lies under 25 counties in eastern Ohio. Over the years, some 35,000 conventional (vertical) wells have tapped the Clinton Sandstone in Ohio. EnerVest, one of the largest acreage holders in the Utica Shale (and in the Clinton Sandstone), has embarked on a great experiment. What if you turned a Clinton Sandstone well horizontal, like a Utica or Marcellus well? Would it work? Could you get more gas out of the sandstone by fracking it like shale? EnerVest has drilled seven horizontal wells so far, with a permit to drill another and a request to drill a ninth. Here’s the details, along with the differences between a Clinton horizontal well and a Utica horizontal well…
Earlier this month Antero Resources, a large and growing driller in the Marcellus and Utica Shale, provided their second quarter financial and operations update. At the time, MDN observed they are getting close to a very exclusive milestone–the 1 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas production–or the “1 Bcf/d Club”. So far only Cabot Oil & Gas, Range Resources and EQT are in the club. Earlier this week Antero issued a guidance update declaring they will hit the 1 Bcf/d level in the second half of this year. Antero has revised UP their “guidance” by another 5%–saying they expect to be at 990 – 1,010 MMcfe/d for the entire year, and well beyond the 1 Bcf/d level (1,160 MMcfe/d) during the second half of the year. So, MDN officially says to Antero: Welcome to the club! Here’s Antero’s extensive guidance update issued Tuesday:
Oh oh. Corporate raider Carl Icahn won’t be happy about this one. MDN told you a month ago that Spanish energy company Repsol was seriously considering buying some, or all, of Canadian company Talisman Energy (see