Early in the development of Ohio’s Utica Shale, drillers like Aubrey McClendon (Chesapeake Energy at the time) targeted Ohio counties like Carroll and Columbiana, in the “northern” part of the Utica play. It didn’t take long for drillers to figure out the “core” of the play where the most oil and gas can be found is in the south, in counties like Harrison, Belmont, Monroe, Noble and Guernsey. Jefferson County sort of straddles both the northern and southern parts of the Utica and was left out. Not any more.
These days, according to the Ohio Oil & Gas Association (OOGA), Jefferson is once again on drillers’ radar. OOGA, Encino (bought out all of Chesapeake’s Ohio Utica assets), and Ascent Resources (used to be American Energy Partners) recently attended and spoke at an event organized by the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce.
OOGA rep Mike Chadsey had some very interesting, we’d call it provocative, things to say about Jefferson County. Like this: Jefferson has already “leap-frogged” Noble County in the number of new drilling permits, and by the end of the year, Jefferson will leap-frog even Guernsey County! Guernsey is the county where virtually all of the most productive oil wells in the Utica have been drilled (see Ohio Utica O&G Production Rockets in 4Q18 – Top 25 Wells).
As we scan down through the “top 25” producing Utica wells from 4Q18, we notice that a number of the top gas wells were drilled in Jefferson County. So maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that interest in Jefferson by Utica drillers is picking up “dramatically,” according to OOGA.
An event was held by the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce to give the community an update on progress being made in the oil and gas industry.
Several topics were up for discussion, including pipeline investment projects, natural gas powerplants and more.
Representatives with the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, Encino Energy and Ascent Resources were all in attendance.
Jefferson County, in particular, is a growing area when it comes to Utica Shale. Based on Monday’s presentation, they only see more progress being made.
“I would say for a long time Jefferson County was not in the discussion when it came to oil and gas development. Now that has dramatically changed,” said Mike Chadsey with the Ohio Oil and Gas Association.
Once an underdog in the industry, the county is now coming out on top.
It has seen substantial growth when it comes to oil and gas in recent years.
As it currently sits, Jefferson County is the 6th-highest producer in the area when it comes to Utica Shale Permits.
“Jefferson County continues to tick upward in terms of permits being issued. This county has just now leap-frogged Noble County, and our guess by the end of the year, they will leap-frog Guernsey County,” Chadsey said.
Chadsey credits this progress to better and smarter drilling in return, creating more investment.
“I think particularly for the land owners, it probably means more drilling, more leasing, more royalty checks,” Chadsey said. “And for the county and townships, it means more taxes and revenue — just general more activity in places like Steubenville.”
And a presence in the oil and gas industry opens up opportunity for different businesses to set up shop in the area.
“The other news that we have is another company called Shale Pro Energy Services has just located in the industrial park, so we’re seeing some of those brick-and-mortar facilities as well,” Chadsey said.
“It’s a service company so if you look at Ascent Resources or Encino Energy, they’re going pad to pad, location to location, where a company like that would supply different resources to those producers.”
Chadsey adds that a lot can be expected in the coming year.
“I see a very productive 2019 for Jefferson County and Beyond, and I think my statement here for those who are listening is that there is much more ahead of us than behind us,” Chadsey said.
Encino is the Texas-based company that recently bought out Chesapeake Energy for $2 billion.*
*Steubenville (OH) WTOV-TV (Apr 29, 2019) – Jefferson County seeing substantial growth in oil and gas in recent years
We got to wondering: How many active Utica wells are there in each Ohio county? So we developed a “pivot table” in the spreadsheet we share with MDN readers with the raw data from Ohio’s quarterly report from 4Q18. We got our answer:
COUNTY (# active Utica wells)
BELMONT (451)
CARROLL (472)
COLUMBIANA (75)
COSHOCTON (1)
GUERNSEY (195)
HARRISON (348)
JEFFERSON (184)
MAHONING (13)
MONROE (306)
MORGAN (2)
MUSKINGUM (1)
NOBLE (164)
PORTAGE (1)
STARK (3)
TRUMBULL (7)
TUSCARAWAS (7)
WASHINGTON (11)
Grand Total: 2241 active Utica wells as of Dec. 31, 2018
Here’s a handy map of eastern OH counties, to orient you on where the wells are located:
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