ODNR Testing Athens Co. Water Wells for Possible Injection Leaks
The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) “temporarily” suspended the operations of four fracking waste injection wells in Athens County last September (see ODNR Temporarily Shuts Down 4 Injection Wells in Athens County). ODNR said, with no solid evidence, that the wells presented an “imminent danger” to health and the environment. ODNR is finally about to test residential water wells in the area (i.e., do real science) to determine if there has been any kind of “communication” or contamination from the injection wells with area production and water wells.
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It appears that EOG Resources, with headquarters in Houston, Texas, is about to establish a regional headquarters/operation in Malvern (Carroll County), Ohio. We say “appears” because we have strong evidence, but we don’t (yet) have confirmation. EOG Resources, one of the largest oil and gas drillers in the U.S. (with international operations in Trinidad and China), owns a huge 430,000+ acres of leases in the Ohio Utica. EOG calls its position the “Ohio Utica combo play” and now considers it one of the company’s “premium plays.” EOG concentrates on oil drilling in the Utica. It makes sense the company would establish a regional office in the Utica near where it drills.
Martins Ferry (OH) Mayor John Davies continues to make noise about the currently shuttered Austin Master Services (AMS) frack waste processing facility in his city. Two weeks ago, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost took legal action seeking to force AMS to correct “egregious violations of Ohio law” regarding the storage of oil and gas waste that he says threatens the Ohio River and Martins Ferry’s drinking water supply (see 
Last week, the Baker Hughes rig count dropped another rig. The count went from 621 active rigs two weeks ago down to 620 last week. This is the third week in a row the national count has lost rigs. Since last October, the national count has gone as low as 616 and as high as 629. And that’s it. No higher and no lower. The Marcellus/Utica remained the same last week at 42 active rigs. However, there were some musical chairs. Pennsylvania gained one rig and now operates 22 rigs. West Virginia lost a rig and now operates 8 rigs. Ohio remained steady with 12 active rigs.
What’s below dismal? The new permits report for two weeks ago showed just five new permits, which we called “dismal” (see 
A royalty case that took nearly four years and hundreds of filings by both sides was finally decided by an Ohio jury in March (see 
The Ohio Oil & Gas Association (OOGA) held its annual meeting in March at the Hilton in Columbus, OH. While MDN was not there, an industry friend sent along a copy of the slide deck used by the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Oil & Gas Resources Management. The ODNR’s “regulatory update” addressed a number of interesting issues, including the state’s ongoing application for “primacy” in permitting carbon dioxide injection wells, permitting and unitization (forced pooling), updates on rule changes for drilling and fracking, and several “top 5” lists for natural gas and oil producers in the Utica Shale.
Oil production in the Ohio Utica hit a record 27.8 million barrels in 2023, up 41% from 2022, according to researchers at the Levin College of Public Affairs and Education at Cleveland State University. In December, eastern Ohio oil wells pumped 93,000 barrels of crude, up one-third from December 2022, according to federal data. Oil has been locked away in the Utica/Point Pleasant shale layer for millennia. Aubrey McClendon, co-founder and former CEO of Chesapeake Energy, was the first to see the vision of freeing oil from the Utica. However, it was a successor company, Encino Energy, that figured out how to coax large quantities of oil out of the Utica shale.
Yesterday, MDN reported that Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost took legal action on Monday, seeking to force Austin Master Services (AMS) in Martins Ferry (Belmont County), OH, to correct “egregious violations of Ohio law” regarding the storage of oil and gas waste that he says threatens the Ohio River and Martins Ferry’s drinking water supply (see 
Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the seemingly moribund effort to drill shale wells on land located in Ohio’s Wayne National Forest (WNF) is active once again. WNF is a patchwork of public and private mineral rights that covers over a quarter million acres of Appalachian foothills of southeastern Ohio. For years, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) blocked new permits and drilling in WNF. During the Trump administration, the BLM began to auction off federal leases and permits (
According to the data geeks at the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), U.S. natural gas production grew by 4% in 2023, which was similar to the growth in 2022. U.S. gas production in 2023 averaged a whopping 125.0 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day). In 2023, more natural gas was produced in the Appalachia (Marcellus/Utica) region of the Northeast than in any other U.S. region, accounting for 29%, or 37.7 Bcf/d, of gross natural gas production. However, production growth in Appalachia slowed because our region doesn’t have enough pipeline takeaway capacity to transport more natural gas out of the region to the markets that would buy it.