For those living in eastern Ohio and along the border in West Virginia, be on the lookout for a new free publication called Shale Play, published by the Warren (OH) Tribune Chronicle and its sister publications.
The Consumer Energy Alliance says if legal and regulatory roadblocks were removed, the United States could be producing and meeting 95% of it’s own energy needs in the next eight years—by 2020. The Marcellus and Utica Shale play a role in such a plan.
Read More “Energy Group Says U.S. Can be Off Foreign Oil by 2020”
Licking County, located in central Ohio, has not yet seen any fracking of shale gas wells, but a new committee sponsored by the county has been established to study fracking and to prepare for “someday” when it may happen. Most of the focus of the committee (so far) seems to be on road use agreements.
Read More “Licking County, OH Forms Fracking Advisory Committee”
According to Rhonda Reda, executive director for the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program, interest in drilling in Ohio that started in the eastern part of the state—in the prolific Utica Shale—will soon start moving to south and west in the state. In fact, there’s already signs that drilling interest is expanding southwest to Ross County.
Read More “Ohio Shale Drilling Starting to Expand South & West”
Hilcorp Energy has just received its first permit to drill a Utica Shale well in Columbiana County, Ohio. Although this is Hilcorp’s first permit, it is the 49th permit for Columbiana County.
Read More “Hilcorp’s First Utica Permit for Columbiana County, OH”
Ohio Gov. John Kasich (a Republican) continues to get pushback on his plan to “spread the wealth around” by increasing taxes on the shale drilling industry and giving Ohio residents a cut in their state income tax. The pushback is now coming from conservative groups, including the National Taxpayers Union, Americans for Prosperity and Americans for Tax Reform.
Earlier this month, a tea party-backed group called Ohio Rising started circulating an anti-tax pledge among Ohio lawmakers against the Kasich plan.
Read More “Conservative Pushback for Gov. Kasich Drilling Tax Increase”
Over the objection of their own lawyer, the village board of Yellow Springs (Green County), Ohio voted to ban both injection wells and all hydraulic fracturing within the village at an August 20 meeting. Three board members (out of five) decided they know better than their residents what those residents can do with their own land.
A new online service displays more than 700 companies in a 12-county region of Ohio that provide services and supplies to the Utica and Marcellus Shale drilling industry on an interactive map. The Ohio Shale Energy “supply chain” website provides a valuable service for businesses looking to plug in to the ever-expanding energy industry in Ohio.
Now that the site is up and running, there are plans to expand it to cover the entire state.
Read More “New Utica Supply Chain Website for Ohio Businesses”
EV Energy Partners has released initial production results for their second Utica Shale well (the Cairns 5H well in Carroll County) and issued an update on their first Utica Shale well (the Frank 2H well in Stark County):
Read More “EV Energy: Production Updates for 2 Ohio Utica Wells”
Ohio’s official state geologist, Larry Wickstrom, chief of the ODNR’s Division of Geological Survey, was fired in May because he updated and released a map showing new boundaries for the Utica Shale and where the best places to drill would be located (see this MDN story). The update caused some of the previous lines to change, and that upset a few people (especially Larry’s political bosses). Mac Swinford has taken his place as interim state geologist. Swinford says a new version of the map will be released in September. Let’s hope he fares better than Wickstrom in navigating the politics of science.
Swinford has given us a heads-up of what the new map will show:
Read More “OH State Geologist: New Utica Map Coming in September”
Hilcorp Energy is interested in drilling in Ohio’s Utica Shale. Specifically, they’re signing contracts and making offers in Mahoning County (northeastern Ohio).
Here are some of the lease offer deals they’ve recently made or signed:
Read More “Hilcorp Energy Leasing Utica Acreage in Mahoning County, OH”
Chevron is set to begin drilling it’s very first Utica Shale well in September. The Kinsey well will be drilled near Tippecanoe, Ohio:
Read More “Chevron’s First Utica Shale Well Coming in September”
More jobs and more economic activity are on the way in eastern Ohio courtesy of Chesapeake Energy’s investments to build a new office complex near St. Clairsville (Belmont County) and their investment in a natural gas processing plant (Harrison/Columbiana counties). The new office complex is due to open in November while the processing plant is due to come online in 2013.
Read More “Chesapeake’s Construction Investment in Ohio Continues”
Akron Beacon Journal reporter Bob Downing reports some interesting facts about the Utica Shale from a recent conference. Well worth your time to review.
Among the interesting facts, MDN found these most interesting:
Read More “List of Biggest Drillers in Ohio, by Leased Acreage”
EV Energy’s Utica well in Stark County, Ohio is producing large quantities of light crude oil in addition to large quantities of natural gas liquids. EV Energy’s CEO, Mark Houser, said their well in Stark looks better in the early results than oil wells in the Eagle Ford basin in Texas. High praise indeed.
Because of what EV and others have found, drilling activity for oil and NGLs is moving to Stark, Tuscarawas, Guernsey and Noble counties.
Read More “EV Energy Strikes Oil & NGLs in Stark County, OH”
Like Pennsylvania, Ohio is experiencing drought conditions this summer. With drought conditions comes concerns that drilling companies use too much water from local rivers and streams (and other sources) for fracking. But also like PA, the amount of water used for fracking in Ohio is truly miniscule compared with other uses.
Until the recent passage of Senate Bill 315, Ohio could not control access to how much water is used by drilling companies. That’s now changed: