Statewide OH

EOG Continues Testing Utica Wells, Tries 700-Foot Spacing

EOG Resources, one of the largest oil and gas drillers in the U.S. (with international operations in Trinidad and China), owns nearly a half million 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…

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The Story of Utica Oil Part 3: The Secret Fracking Recipe

Writing for Hart Energy’s Oil and Gas Investor magazine, author Nissa Darbonne penned a fabulous overview of the Utica, bringing us the history of oil drilling in Ohio (in the 1800s) all the way up to the present day and Encino Energy’s dominance in oil drilling in the Utica. The article includes details about Encino…

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The Story of Utica Oil Part 2: Infinity Natural Res. Comes for Oil

Writing for Hart Energy’s Oil and Gas Investor magazine, author Nissa Darbonne penned a fabulous overview of the Utica, bringing us the history of oil drilling in Ohio (in the 1800s) all the way up to the present day and Encino Energy’s dominance in oil drilling in the Utica. The article includes details about Encino…

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The Story of Utica Oil Part 1: Encino Becomes Most Active Driller

We’ve written a number of times about the Ohio Utica Shale and its beginnings with gas legend Aubrey McClendon, who, as CEO of Chesapeake Energy, was one of (if not THE) first to recognize the Utica as an oil play. However, it was a successor company, Encino Energy, that figured out how to coax large…

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Marcellus Sees Soaring Costs, Lower Production – Ranking Decreased

Operators and investors are more concerned than ever about the remaining inventory of drillable locations. Who has it? Where is it? Will it be economic? The North American inventory rankings by shale play are always of interest. Enverus Intelligence Research (EIR), a subsidiary of Enverus, recently issued a report that ranks the plays by the…

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Cleveland Democrat Floats Bill to Require Frack Chemical Disclosure

An anti-drilling Democrat member of the Ohio House of Representatives (representing a Cleveland suburb) would love nothing more than to ban all shale drilling in his state. He has just introduced a bill requiring drillers to disclose any and all chemicals they use for any purpose when drilling a new shale well under state-owned land….

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Ohio About to Net $60+ Million for Drilling Under State Parks

A request by the Ohio Office of Budget and Management (OBM) to set up two new bank accounts to accept payments from drillers is the tipoff that drilling is about to begin under some of Ohio’s state land, including state parks. The state will receive nearly $60 million in lease signing bonus payments to drill…

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Ohio Bill to Encourage New NatGas Pipelines Passes Committee Vote

A new bill proposed by two Republican state lawmakers in Ohio, House Bill (HB) 349, makes it easier to site and build natural gas pipelines to areas of the state where pipelines currently don’t exist (see Ohio Bill Encourages New NatGas Pipelines to Spread Across State). The bill will stimulate new jobs by running pipelines…

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Anti-Shale Group to Hold Presser Outside Muskingum Watershed Mtg

For more than a decade, MDN has brought you stories about shale development on and under land controlled by the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD), an agency formed in 1933 to help control flooding and promote water conservation in the Muskingum River watershed area of Ohio, an area that covers 8,000 square miles (see our…

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Baker Hughes U.S. Rig Count Drops 4 @ 600, M-U Drops 3 @ 37

Yeah, the bottom pretty much fell out of the rig count last week, both nationally and for the Marcellus/Utica region. We’re hitting new lows with both counts. For the M-U, Pennsylvania stayed the same with 21 active rigs, but Ohio lost one rig, and West Virginia lost two rigs last week, for a net loss…

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Gulfport 1Q – Focusing On Liquids in 2024, Still Loves Marcellus

Gulfport Energy, the third-largest driller in the Ohio Utica Shale (by the number of wells drilled), reported its first quarter 2024 numbers earlier this week. The company drills Utica *and* Marcellus wells in Ohio. It also has an active drilling program in the Oklahoma SCOOP shale play. Gulfport’s net daily production for 1Q24 averaged 1,053.7…

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Encino Energy Spent $2M to Help 145 Ohio Nonprofits Past 5 Years

Encino Energy published its annual Community Progress Report for 2023 yesterday. The report provides insight into the company’s achievements through its Community Partnership Program and highlights its investments in the communities in which it operates. In five years of active operations in Ohio, Encino has donated more than $2 million to 145 community groups and…

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BLM Floats Draft Assessment for Drilling in OH’s Wayne Nat’l Forest

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…

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U.S. NatGas Production Grew by 4% in 2023; M-U Grew 3% – 1.2 Bcf/d

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)…

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EOG Resources “Stepping Up Activity” in Ohio Utica for 2024

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…

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