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Superlight Crude Production Takes Off in Eastern Ohio’s Utica Shale
We’ve been covering the emergence of Ohio Utica oil over the past couple of years (see our Utica oil stories here). Other news outlets are beginning to notice the oily Utica. The experts at RBN Energy published a post on Friday announcing, “Condensate Production Takes Off in Eastern Ohio’s Utica Shale.” Condensate is another word for superlight crude oil. The RBN post analyzes recent oil drilling in Ohio, the potential for more growth through the second half of the 2020s, and the impact of Ohio’s increasing oil output on Midwest midstreamers and refiners. Read More “Superlight Crude Production Takes Off in Eastern Ohio’s Utica Shale”
For the week of Dec 2 – 8, permits issued in the Marcellus/Utica bounced back nicely. There were 28 new permits issued last week, more than doubling the 12 issued the week before (and matching the 28 issued three weeks ago). The Keystone State (PA) issued 18 new permits, with eight going to EQT spread across three counties: Jefferson, Lycoming, and Washington. Chesapeake Energy (now Expand Energy) received four permits, all of them in northeastern PA’s Wyoming County. CNX Resource scooped up two permits, both in Westmoreland County. The final four permits were singles issued to Blackhill Energy (Bradford County), XPR Resources (Centre County), Inflection Energy (Lycoming County), and Olympus Energy (Allegheny County). 
The Ohio Oil and Gas Land Management Commission (OGLMC) continues to do its job. Yesterday, the group held a meeting and awarded five contracts for drilling and fracking UNDER (not on) several state-owned lands, including a contract with EOG Resources to drill under 85 acres in Keen Wildlife Area in Washington Township, Harrison County, for $211,650 ($2,500/acre). Also of interest at yesterday’s meeting was that 40 parcels of land in Salt Fork State Park and Salt Fork Wildlife Area were removed from the committee’s agenda. Apparently, the nominating company withdrew its application for those tracts.
Three weeks ago, 31 new permits were issued to drill in the entire Marcellus/Utica region. Two weeks ago, the number dropped (dramatically) to just seven new permits. And then last week, the number of permits issued soared once again — all the way up to 46. Bam! We just kicked it up a notch. Seneca Resources took the top spot for new permits, receiving a total of nine permits, all in Tioga County, PA. Chesapeake Energy and Antero Resources tied for second place with seven new permits each, with Chessy’s permits coming in Bradford County, PA, and Antero’s in Doddridge County, WV. Coming in third was Jay-Bee Oil & Gas with six permits issued in Pleasants County, WV. State by state, PA issued 24 new permits, OH issued 9, and WV issued 13 permits.
On May 23, the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) issued a pooling order to Encino Energy that combines a number of properties into a single unit for drilling wells. The total of the surface land pooled is 1,081.076 acres, located in Stock Township, Harrison County, Ohio. There are 121 (!) properties or pieces of property involved, largely due to the unit passing under what appears to be a housing development. This type of thing goes on frequently — the ODNR issuing a pooling order. What’s different and unusual about this one is that the ODRN appears to have denied a request by Encino to raise the penalty against those who refused to sign a lease but ended up being forced to participate anyway.
Two more tracts of Ohio public lands designated as “wildlife areas” have been nominated by shale companies to be drilled and fracked under (not on), which has the anti-fossil fuel group Save Ohio Parks up in arms. The tagline for Save Ohio Parks is “No fracking on public lands.” The thing is, there isn’t any fracking on public lands in Ohio. It’s UNDER, not ON. Well pads and equipment would be erected on PRIVATE land adjacent to the public land. There is no disturbance of any kind on top of Ohio’s public lands. The new parcels nominated include 84 acres in the Keen Wildlife Area in Washington Township (Harrison County). A second parcel of 30 acres has also been nominated for the Egypt Valley Wildlife Area in Flushing Township (Belmont County).