Chesapeake Energy takes security in and around it’s drill sites seriously—so much so they employ 24 full-time security officers to conduct roving patrols in an eight-county region in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania.
Security for Chesapeake, however, involves far more than driving by a drill site and rattling a chained fence…
Read More “Chesapeake’s Drilling Security – A Serious Business”
In July MDN told you about Encore Energy, a horizontal well operator formed last year and headquartered in Bowling Green, Kentucky, that’s acting as a leasing agent for a large tract of Utica Shale acreage. At the time they advertised they “have access to” 175,000 acres in Ohio (see Encore Energy Shopping 175K Utica Shale Acres in OH). That number has grown. Encore is advertising they have now have access and rights to lease a quarter of a million acres in the Ohio Utica.
Wanting to remind drillers they’re still around and have land deals to lease, they issued another press release on Wednesday:
Read More “OH Utica Leasing Agent’s Acreage Grows to 1/4 Million”
Drilling company Magnum Hunter Resources announced a joint operating deal yesterday with Eclipse Resources to drill 12 Marcellus and 12 Utica Shale wells on 1,950 acres in Monroe County, OH over the next three years. Both companies together will invest $200 million in the program.
The reason for the partnership between these fierce competitors? According to Magnum Hunter, it’s due to the “treacherous terrain in this region” of the state. They want to pool resources and keep costs down. Of course, it also helps that Eclipse will start using Magnum’s pipeline system (Eureka Hunter Pipeline), providing more revenue for the midstream area of the business.
Read More “Two Fierce Competitors Join Forces to Drill in OH Utica Shale”
Some interesting facts about Ohio Utica Shale drilling for 2012, and predictions for 2013…Fact number one: There are 45 producing horizontal Utica Shale wells in Ohio as of Dec. 31, 2012. They produce 40% as much natural gas as all 64,000 vertical-only natural gas wells in the state produce. (You read that right!) Conclusion: When Ohio reaches 113 producing Utica Shale wells (sometime in 2013), it will equal the entire natural gas production of all 64K vertical natural gas wells in the state. Behold the miracle of hydraulic fracturing.
Here’s a few more fascinating facts about Ohio’s Utica Shale drilling in 2012, and predictions for what’s ahead in 2013:
Read More “OH Utica Shale Drilling Will Continue Rapid Expansion in 2013”
When it comes to drilling in the Ohio Utica Shale, a lot of attention has been focused on the ramp up in activity—the growing number of drilling rigs, huge land lease deals, and eye-popping initial production results for some of the wells drilled. But there is another side to the story.
Every now and again, a well does not produce. Could be the driller did not properly find the shale layer (extremely rare). Could be they did find it but for whatever reason the layer doesn’t produce in that area. More likely there were problems during the drilling that caused the work to be stopped—like a broken-off drill bit. In Ohio, there have been nine Utica Shale wells that have been plugged and abandoned (so far). Here’s where they are located and who did the drilling:
Read More “Flip Side: Some OH Utica Shale Wells Get Plugged/Abandoned”
Chesapeake Energy is the largest driller (by far) in the Ohio Utica Shale—a situation not likely to change any time soon. Chesapeake is in love with Ohio’s Utica Shale.
Here’s a rundown of their drilling operations in the Ohio Utica, including how many wells drilled (to date), how much they’ve invested in the state, and their plans for 2013:
Read More “Chesapeake Energy’s Huge Vote of Confidence in Ohio’s Utica Shale”
Do you live in eastern Ohio, have heard about the Utica Shale boom and want a job in the industry? Here’s a handy list of job center locations, phone numbers and websites to help you with your job search:
Read More “Utica Shale Job Search Resources in Eastern Ohio”
Landowners who live in Portage County, Ohio who have a concern that their water may become contaminated from Utica Shale drilling activity can have their water tested now, before drilling begins, for free. The free testing will be done on Jan. 6 (and on the first Sunday of each month) in Shalersville by the anti-drilling group Concerned Citizens Ohio/Shalersville.
Read More “Portage County Landowners Get Free Pre-Drilling Water Tests”
In May 2012, the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR), the state agency that oversees the permitting and drilling of oil and gas wells, set a goal of tripling the number of well inspectors by the end of 2012—which would mean having 90 inspectors on staff. The agency has struggled with a heavy load of inspections due to a ramp up in Utica Shale drilling.
So, did ODNR meet its goal?
Read More “Checking Up: Did ODNR Meet Goal of 90 Well Inspectors?”
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:
Read More “New Pipeline/Compressor Plant Coming in Belmont County, OH”
MDN recently told you about a natural gas liquids (NGLs) “tank farm” located at Half Moon Industrial Park in Weirton, WV (along the Ohio River) that started shipping NGLs by river barge to be processed in Houston, TX (see this MDN story). An initial shipment of one million gallons of NGLs were floated by barge first down the Ohio River, then the Mississippi River.
Toronto, OH, which sits just a few miles up the river from Weirton on the opposite bank of the Ohio River, is about to get in on the NGL barge-shipping business too. A 40-acre site in Toronto’s port was just sold to a company that will set up a tank farm and start shipping NGLs to the Gulf Coast for processing:
Read More “New NGL Barge Shipping Operation to Open in Toronto, OH”
In an article about the merger of a local land conservancy group with a larger, regional conservancy group in Ohio—the Western Reserve Land Conservancy (WRLC)—MDN spotted remarks that indicate land conservancies have an anti-drilling philosophy, which raises the issue of whether or not you should support them or sign an agreement with them if you’re a landowner.
Remarks from the president of Little Beaver Creek Land Foundation (LBCLF), the local land conservancy group that merged with the WRLC:
Read More “OH Land Conservancies Try to Prevent Utica Drilling”
Although BP is the largest leaseholder for Utica Shale drilling in Trumbull County, OH with 84,000 acres under lease, Halcon Resources, which purchased 15,000 acres of leases from Carrizo Oil & Gas in October (see this MDN story), is the first to put drill bit to earth and is currently drilling the county’s very first horizontal Utica Shale well:
Read More “Trumbull County’s First Utica Shale Well Now in Process”
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…
Read More “Belmont County, OH Deed Research Impacts Local Library Too”
The latest round of permits to drill new Utica Shale wells from the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) includes 11 new permits, 8 of which went to Chesapeake Energy.
Here’s the latest Ohio Utica permit report (with grand totals by county) as of Dec. 12:
Read More “11 New Utica Shale Drilling Permits in OH, as of Dec 12”
What is it about states like Texas that causes Ohio’s Gov. John Kasich to view them as “foreign” and their citizens as “foreigners” (see this MDN story). An anal retentive fixation on the part of Kasich? Perhaps.
His fixation is in full bloom again. Kasich reports he recently went on some “foreign travel”—to Houston, Texas—where he had private discussions about raising taxes. Kasich also has a fixation on raising taxes on the drilling industry in Ohio so he can “spread the wealth” around to everyone:
Read More “OH Gov. Kasich Keeps Beating the Higher Drilling Tax Drum”