Belmont County

Beck Energy | Belmont County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | Monroe County | Ohio | XTO

XTO, Beck Energy Appeal OH Case Allowing Lease Termination
March 15, 2013March 15, 2013

Earlier this week MDN told you about 600-700 landowners in Ohio who won a lawsuit allowing them to terminate leases held with Beck Energy and XTO Energy (see OH Lawsuit Victory: 600-700 Landowners Can Terminate Beck, XTO Leases).

Beck and XTO are none too happy with the decision and have appealed it to the Ohio Court of Appeals:

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Beck Energy | Belmont County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | Monroe County | Ohio | XTO

OH Lawsuit Victory: 600-700 Landowners Can Terminate Beck, XTO Leases
March 11, 2013March 11, 2013

A court case recently-decided could have big implications for landowners in Ohio. The case means that some 600-700 landowners with signed leases with Beck Energy Corp. and XTO Energy in Monroe and Belmont counties may be able to join a class action to have their leases terminated, allowing them to re-sign with a different company.

The details, as provided by law firm Jackson Kelly:

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Antero Resources | Belmont County | Energy Companies | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio

Antero Continues to Sign Leases with Barnesville, OH Residents
March 11, 2013March 11, 2013

Antero Resources continues to sign residents of the village of Barnesville (Belmont County), OH to leases with terms of $5,700 per acre for a signing bonus, plus 20% royalties. A month ago MDN told you about the push by Antero in Belmont County and Barnesville (see Antero Offers Barnesville, OH Residents $5,700/Acre 20% Royalties).

According to one of Antero’s main cheerleaders, Barnesville Mayor Ron Bischof, the company has signed a number of residents (records show over 800 leases) and they’re still offering the same deal. It’s not too late…

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Belmont County | Blue Racer Midstream | Caiman Energy | Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Marshall County | NGLs | Ohio | Pipelines | Processing Plants | West Virginia

Bomb Threat at Natrium, WV NGL Plant Doesn’t Slow Construction
February 19, 2013February 19, 2013

A $500 million natural gas liquids processing plant in Natrium (Marshall County), WV will go online in the next few weeks—even with a temporary stoppage of construction last Saturday due to a bomb threat (no word on who made the threat or why). The Natrium plant is part of Blue Racer Midstream, a $1.5 billion joint venture between Dominion and Caiman Energy (see Dominion, Caiman in $1.5B Utica JV: Blue Racer Midstream). The new plant was originally scheduled to go online by end of 2012.

Some of the construction for the plant is happening across the border in Belmont County, Ohio:

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Antero Resources | Belmont County | Energy Companies | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio

Antero Offers Barnesville, OH Residents $5,700/Acre 20% Royalties
February 7, 2013February 7, 2013

Normally drillers eschew drilling under cities or villages as a practical matter. Where do you put a drilling rig? What about traffic clogging up local streets? What if you can’t get everyone (or almost everyone) to sign? And why work to sign several hundred leases for a one square mile drilling unit with all of the deed research, negotiations, etc. that come with it, when you can sign leases with three or four people (farmers with lots of acreage) in a single unit?

The prospect of dealing with hundreds of landowners is not stopping Antero Resources (see Antero Resources Goes “All In” on Marcellus/Utica) from offering the residents of Barnesville (Belmont County), OH the same deal they struck last year to lease village-owned land: $5,700 per acre as a signing bonus, and 20% royalties on production.

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Belmont County | Energy Companies | Gulfport Energy | Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Utica Shale

Mind-blowing Earnings from a Single Utica Shale Well
January 28, 2013January 28, 2013

Wow! Some truly astonishing numbers (if they hold up) for the earnings power from a single Gulfport well in the Utica Shale of Belmont County, Ohio. According to a WVU professor who tracks these things, the Stutzman well, when brought online, will be earning in the neighborhood of $100,000 per day for Gulfport, and a huge royalty check for the landowner.

Here’s the calculations:

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Belmont County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Ohio | Oxford Oil Company

Belmont County Landowners with Lease Sue to Stop Well Drilling
January 24, 2013January 24, 2013

A Barnesville (Belmont County), OH couple have sued the company they signed a lease with in 2008, Oxford Oil Company, to prevent Oxford from drilling a new well on a hayfield on their property.

The details as we know them:

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Belmont County | Energy Companies | Gulfport Energy | Harrison County | Ohio | Utica Shale

More Impressive Production Numbers for Gulfport in OH’s Utica
January 23, 2013January 23, 2013

Some more impressive production results have just been reported by Gulfport Energy for two of their Utica wells in Ohio: The Clay-1-4H in Harrison County, and the Stutzman 1-14H well in Belmont County. Recall that the most productive well we’ve heard of anywhere (Utica, Marcellus or any other play) was drilled by Gulfport, the Shugert 1-12H in Belmont County. Looks like Belmont County in particular continues to be a great place to drill.

Here’s the results they reported yesterday:

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Belmont County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Ohio Gathering | Pipelines

New Pipeline/Compressor Plant Coming in Belmont County, OH
December 31, 2012December 31, 2012

Ohio Gathering Co. has posted a $5 million bond in Belmont County, OH to cover the cost of potential road repairs and maintenance in connection with a pipeline and compressor plant project they have under way in the county.

Here’s where (in the county) the pipeline and compressor plant is being built, along with the roads that will be affected by truck and heavy equipment traffic:

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Belmont County | Ohio

Belmont County, OH Deed Research Impacts Local Library Too
December 31, 2012December 31, 2012

In November, MDN pointed out you can always tell where drilling will soon begin in earnest by the how busy the local county clerk/deed recorder office is. We predicted that Belmont County, OH would soon see a ramp up in drilling based on the frenzy of activity at the county recorder’s office (see this MDN story).

The activity at the Belmont recorder’s office is as busy as ever, even over the holiday period. It’s standing room only at the office, and that’s now spilled over to the public library across the street. Abstractors have taken to snapping digital photographs of deed books and then relocating to the more spacious facility of the public library. But now that’s creating a problem…

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Belmont County | Energy Companies | Gulfport Energy | Harrison County | Ohio

The Secret to Gulfport’s OH Utica Drilling Success
December 17, 2012December 17, 2012

An excellent article on the Youngstown Business Journal website from Saturday delves into the question of why Gulfport Energy has (so far) turned in the most impressive results of all Utica Shale drilling in Ohio (see this MDN story for background on their success). Gulfport CEO Jim Palms credits better science and a little of luck for their astonishing success.

The real secret as to why Gulfport’s wells in Harrison and Belmont counties are doing so much better than counties farther north, like Carroll and Columbiana? It has to do with pressure…

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Belmont County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Gulfport Energy | MarkWest Energy | Ohio | Utica Shale

Gulfport’s New Utica Well Produces Mind-blowing 28.5 Mmcf/d!
November 28, 2012November 28, 2012

First we had the “Alpha Dog” Utica Shale well from Gulfport Energy, the Wagner 1-H well producing 14 million cubic feet of natural gas per day (see this MDN story). Then we had an even bigger success with Gulfport’s Shugert 1-1H, which MDN dubbed the “King of Utica Shale wells” producing a whopping 20 million cubic feet of gas per day (see this MDN story). We’re running out of metaphors to use! Yesterday Gulfport reported a flow rate of 28.5 million cubic feet per day on the Shugert 1-12H well (in Belmont County, OH), sister well to the 1-1H. Wow! Shall we call the 1-12H the Emperor Utica Shale well? It certainly ascends to the throne as the top-most producing well in the Utica.

In the same announcement from yesterday Gulfport said it has made its first sales in the Utica Shale via MarkWest Energy. Here is the full press release with details on the Shugert 1-12H and MarkWest:

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Belmont County | Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Ohio

Belmont County, OH Drilling to Take Off Soon
November 26, 2012November 26, 2012

Want to know where drilling is set to rapidly expand? One of the indicators is how busy the county clerk or county recorder’s office is. Before you drill you have to lease, and in order to lease, you have to perform title searches to be sure the landowner has free and clear title to enter into a lease. Busyness at the county recorder’s office is a good signal for what will soon follow.

Using the metric of how busy the recorder’s office is, Belmont County, Ohio is due for a lot of drilling activity in the not-too-distant future:

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Belmont County | Energy Companies | Guernsey County | Gulfport Energy | Harrison County | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Gulfport CEO Says Company’s Future is the Utica Shale
November 12, 2012November 12, 2012

On a conference call last week, Gulfport Energy’s CEO James Palm called the Utica Shale a “once-in-a-lifetime play … and a company changer.” He said the company plans to invest $225 million next year in Ohio’s Utica Shale to drill 50 new wells. The eventual goal? They plan to drill 400 Utica Shale wells in the next four years.

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Belmont County | Energy Companies | Gulfport Energy | Harrison County | Ohio | Utica Shale

New ‘King’ of Utica Wells? Gulfport Shugert Well @ 20 Mmcf/d
October 10, 2012October 10, 2012

Yesterday Gulfport Energy Corporation reported astonishing production results for it’s Utica Shale well Shugert 1-1H (in the town of Kirkwood, Belmont County, Ohio). The well tested at an initial rate of 20 million cubic feet of natural gas per day (Mmcf/d). It also produced an initial 144 barrels of condensate per day, and 2,002 barrels of natural gas liquids per day.

Previously, MDN reported another Gulfport Utica well (the Wagner 1-H) had become the “alpha dog” by overtaking the famed Chesapeake Buell well—and the Wagner well was flowing at “just” 14 Mmcf/d and producing 1,881 barrels of NGLs (see this MDN story). What do we call this new well: The King? (We’re running out of metaphors!) The new Shugert 1-1H well by Gulfport is, to MDN’s knowledge, the single largest producing well in the Utica Shale.

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Belmont County | Harrison County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio

Muskingum Watershed Moves Forward with Water Sales to Drillers
September 25, 2012September 25, 2012

There’s been a change in position at the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD), a large watershed located in Ohio. MDN reported earlier this year that the MWCD was making moves to sell water from some of it’s vast supply to Utica Shale drillers who have a number of active drilling rigs in the area. Almost as soon as the news was announced, however, the board of the MWCD issued a press release saying they would not sell any more water (other than a deal already done) until a comprehensive study was completed by the U.S. Geological Survey “later this year” on how such water sales might impact the watershed (see this MDN story for background).

The MWCD has reversed its decision (again). The USGS survey is not yet done, but the MWCD is now going to sell water to drillers—but only for a limited time. Here’s the details:

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