Ohio

Lease & Royalty Payments | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Lease Bonus Payments for Marcellus & Utica Reach New Highs
October 12, 2012October 12, 2012

Because the sale price of domestically produced oil and natural gas has gone down over the past year, royalties for landowners have gone down as well. However, the bonus payments landowners receive when signing a new lease agreement have gone up—way up in the Marcellus and Utica Shale.

A newly released survey (embedded below) from Farmers National Co., a real estate management company for property owners, shows a dramatic increase for bonus deals in West Virginia (up 1.75 times), in Pennsylvania (more than doubling, up 2.3 times), but most dramatically, in Ohio (up nearly 13 times from a year ago). The largest reported lease signing bonus in Ohio for 3Q12 was a whopping $8,200 per acre.

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Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA

A Look at the Numbers: OH Drill Permits Dip, PA Permits Grow
October 11, 2012October 11, 2012

The number of permits filed to drill new shale oil and gas wells in Ohio slowed a bit in September, according to recent records. The number of permits to drill new shale wells in Pennsylvania saw an uptick in September.

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Athens County | Ohio

Athens, OH Shale Well Produces Oil – Before it’s Fracked
October 11, 2012October 11, 2012

A recently drilled shale oil and gas well in southeastern Ohio (Athens County) is already showing signs of promise. The owner reports that although the well was drilled into the Utica Shale and has not yet been fracked, it’s already starting to produce oil:

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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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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Marathon Oil | Ohio | Processing Plants | Statewide OH | Trucking | Utica Shale

Marathon to Move Utica NGLs to Refineries by Truck & Barge
October 10, 2012October 10, 2012

Marathon Petroleum Corp. (MPC) and Harvest Pipeline Company announced yesterday they’re working together to build a system to bring natural gas liquids (NGLs) from the Utica Shale in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania to Marathon’s refineries by truck and barge along the Ohio River. The joint project will be completed by the end of 2013.

From the Marathon press release:

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH

Shale is "Revolutionary" for Ohio’s Petrochemical Industry
October 9, 2012October 9, 2012

Ohio finds itself at the very front end of the shale energy revolution and all of the benefits that will mean for the state. Most stories on how the shale boom will affect the state economically concentrate on the exploration and production (E&P) aspects and talk about jobs and tax revenue—very important aspects.

Not mentioned so often is another beneficiary of the shale revolution: the petrochemical industry. Shale drilling, according to one trade group, will have a “revolutionary” (not just evolutionary) impact on chemical and plastics companies throughout Ohio. How?

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Maryland | New York | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide MD | Statewide NY | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide VA | Statewide WV | Utica Shale | Virginia | West Virginia

USGS Releases Official Estimate of Oil & Gas in Utica Shale
October 5, 2012October 5, 2012

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has just released their first official assessment (i.e. estimate) of how much recoverable natural gas, oil and gas liquids is located in the Utica Shale throughout Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland and Virginia (a full copy of the USGS assessment is embedded below).

The USGS estimates the Utica is #3 in size behind the Marcellus (#1) and Green River Basin (#2) for volume of recoverable natural gas in the U.S. Here are the numbers from the USGS, along with and a brief introduction to their first-ever assessment of the Utica:

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Anadarko | Devon Energy | Energy Companies | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Ohio’s Less Than Stellar Results from Oil Drilling
October 5, 2012October 5, 2012

The story line for development of the Marcellus and Utica Shale going back to the beginning of this year was, “Drillers are leaving the dry gas areas and going after wet gas,” meaning natural gas liquids. Why? Because the price for liquids is more favorable. That meant drilling activity was lessening in places like northeast Pennsylvania and (supposedly) moving to southwest PA, northern WV and eastern OH. To some degree that has happened.

However, the price for natural gas liquids has fallen due an abundance created by Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling. So the more recent story has been a move toward drilling for crude oil, especially in Ohio. But drilling for crude in Ohio isn’t working out so well—at least for some drillers.

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Greene County (OH) | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation

Ohio Village Flouts State Law, Passes Drilling Ban
October 4, 2012October 4, 2012

The so-called home rule issue is cropping up in Ohio. Home rule is when a local municipality believes it has the right to govern or ban oil and gas drilling within its borders, using local zoning laws, even though in most states (like Ohio) the right and responsibility to govern oil and gas drilling is vested in the state and not in municipalities.

Ohio now has it’s first municipality (located in Greene County) to flout state law by passing a drilling ban. It passed 3-2—a single vote stripped away property rights of residents to allow drilling on or under their land. Here’s the details:

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Columbiana County | Energy Services | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | U.S. Silica

US Silica Opens New Frack Sand Storage Facility in Ohio
October 4, 2012October 4, 2012

U.S. Silica, the country’s second largest domestic producer of commercial sand, announced yesterday they’ve partnered with S.H. Bell Company to open a new silica sand storage facility (railroad transload facility) in Columbiana County, Ohio to serve drillers in the rapidly expanding Utica and Marcellus Shale plays.

From the press release:

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Carroll County | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Taxation

Carroll County’s Dim View on Higher Severance Taxes
October 4, 2012October 4, 2012

When the miracle of hydraulic fracturing shows up in a community, jobs, money and economic expansion show up too. Not far behind are politicians who want to stick their hands into the pockets of those doing the hard work (the energy companies) and those making it possible (the landowners) so they can “spread the wealth around” to those who don’t do the hard work and don’t make it possible (it’s called buying votes). It’s a powerful temptation that both Democrats and Republicans have a hard time resisting.

Case in point: Ohio.

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Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

New IHS Report Compares OH Utica Shale to TX Eagle Ford Shale
October 4, 2012October 4, 2012

IHS Cera, a global consulting and information service, recently published a new report on the Utica Shale and its potential. Although MDN has not seen the full report, the press release announcing the report contains a good bit of useful information about the IHS findings. IHS compares the Utica to the highly productive Eagle Ford Shale in Texas, saying there are many parallels, but cautioning it’s still very early in the game.

Here’s the full release with lots of juicy tidbits, including which well has produced the most oil in the Ohio Utica:

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Chesapeake Energy | Columbiana County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | EV Energy Partners | Industrywide Issues | M3 Midstream | Ohio | Processing Plants

OH Shale Gas Processing Plant Work Gets Underway
October 2, 2012October 2, 2012

In May, MDN told you about a new $400 million shale gas collection and processing plant being built in Columbiana County, Ohio by a joint venture between Chesapeake Energy, M3 Midstream and EV Energy Partners (see this MDN story). The plant will be built on a 117-acre site over a 5-year span with the first part due to go online in 2013.

A quick update on the new plant:

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Ohio | Statewide OH

ODNR Announces Third Ohio State Geologist This Year
October 1, 2012October 1, 2012

Do we now have a conclusion to the unhappy tale of a state geologist for Ohio? You may recall MDN’s coverage of the firing of Ohio state geologist Larry Wickstrom earlier this year when he released a map showing revised boundaries for the Utica Shale formation, boundaries indicating where “the best places” to drill are located (see this MDN story). That map apparently ticked off Wickstrom’s bosses at ODNR. Wickstrom had been an employee of the ODNR Geological Survey division for 29 years but he was shown the door.

After Wickstrom we had an interim state geologist, Mac Swinford, who announced a new Utica Shale boundary map due out in September (see this MDN story). No idea if Swinford’s map announcement had anything to do with the latest ODNR announcement or not, but as of Friday, we now have a new, officially anointed, full-time, non-interim state geologist: Thomas J. Serenko.

Read More “ODNR Announces Third Ohio State Geologist This Year”
CNX Resources | CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Ohio | Trumbull County

CONSOL Stops Work on Trumbull County’s First Utica Well
September 28, 2012September 28, 2012

CONSOL Energy has decided to stop working on the first-ever Utica Shale well in Trumbull County, Ohio saying they are “re-prioritizing” their activity in the county. Does that mean CONSOL is leaving the county?

Here’s what we know:

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Ohio: $17.5B in Economic Activity from Drilling 2011-2014
September 27, 2012September 27, 2012

Linda Woggon, executive vice president of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce and executive director of the Ohio Shale Coalition, said at a meeting yesterday that shale drilling in Ohio is on track to pump a total of $17.5 billion into the Ohio economy from 2011 to 2014 and generate 65,000 jobs. It will also bring in an additional $795 million in taxes over the same time period—with no increases on taxpayers.

Here’s a few of the highlights from her talk at a breakfast hosted by the Salem Area Chamber Area of Commerce on Wednesday:

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