"Utica's Wet Gas Zone just about Leased"

Of the 13 counties that are in the wet gas zone, most of the land is already leased in my observation.  Most of the acreage in the wet gas zone was HBP many years ago, this gave the oil companies a tremendous advantage, they merely had to deal with the old smaller independents who were only funded and technically capable of drilling to the Clinton.  The longitude and latitude boundaries seem to be already established for the Utica wet gas excepting the northern limits which may or not be Trumbull county.

With the pulling of permits by Chesapeake and others, the production of the wet gas is about to begin en masse.  The play now is to tie up all the remaining smaller parcels, they refer to this in the industry as: "clean up."  Mahoning county in the Utica will be the most challenging, it is the largest urban and suburban acreage of the Utica wet gas zone.  Mahoning is subdivided into millions of residential parcels, mass lease signings, will become the norm here only when the people see their local leaders endorsing this transaction.  However, this will be good for all citizens, they will have passive income even if it only offsets the property taxes on their homes. 

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Permalink Reply by owner on December 5, 2011 at 8:42am

Are there any maps showing the wet gas area of the utica and the marcellus?   I have seen many maps, some show an out of date wet gas for the marcellus, but I have not seen any for the utica.  I am mainly interesed in Pa. since I live in Pa. 

Permalink Reply by Jim Litwinowicz on December 5, 2011 at 9:31am

Mark; here's a great page for maps.  Go down four rows....fourth from left...click to enlarge.

http://www.google.com/search?q=utica+shale+maps&hl=en&biw=1...

Permalink Reply by Steven A Joliat on December 5, 2011 at 12:38pm

Keep in mind that the map showing boundaries for oil, wet gas and dry gas was developed with severely limited data.  If you happen to be a few miles from these boundaries don't give up hope.  As new information becomes available these boundaries will adjust.  These types of maps are estimates, and the drill bit will furnish the truth.

Permalink Reply by owner on December 5, 2011 at 2:50pm

Thanks Jim.   The reason I am interested in the wet gas of Pa is that I have a couple of properties in Venango County and there is alot of interest for it right now.   All of these maps show the wet gas area of the utica not in Venango county, but I am sure the companies are after the wet gas.   I did see an EQT map that showed this area as a sweat wet gas area in the marcellus, but again, not many public maps show this. 

Permalink Reply by Jim May on December 5, 2011 at 3:53pm

I have not heard that Noble County is fully leased other than some acreage in the NW by Eclipse.  From the maps circulating, it appears that most of the county is within the wet gas zone.   It is true that there is much ground HBP or owned by the coal folks, but there still is a fair amount unleased.

Permalink Reply by Ron Eiselstein on December 6, 2011 at 8:00am

I often wonder why the oil companies just don't ask all property owners big and small to come to a mass lease signing and close the deal once and for all with the best price they can offer;  seems to me this would be easy and expedient.

Permalink Reply by Utica Shale on December 6, 2011 at 9:38am

Rom,

 I was at a meeting this week with Dr. Robert Chase (Ph D in Petroleum Engineering) of Marietta College. He stated, "The  western border for the Wet Gas play in Ohio is going to expanded even more west than currently drawn on our maps."

Permalink Reply by Bob Moran on December 6, 2011 at 11:37am

Utica, Did Dr. Chase state his feelings about the eastern & northern wet gas boundries?

Permalink Reply by Jim May on December 6, 2011 at 11:39am

Did he say anything about the Eastern border?

Permalink Reply by Steven A Joliat on December 6, 2011 at 12:42pm

I was at a conference in October where the Ohio State Geologist suggested the boundaries of the map are questionable.  I believe he may have seen some of the new data that is not publically available.  Should Chesapeake choose to publish the results from more of their wells, we will get a better idea of the state of the north and east boundaries.  My personal belief is the boundaries will expand to the north and east.  There are deeply buried old faults that can have significant impact on where the ultimate edges of the play will be.  For those of us not working for the oil companies, or with friends there, it remains a guessing game at best for now.

Permalink Reply by Bob Moran on December 6, 2011 at 3:25pm

Thanks Steven. I'm between New Castle, Pa & the Ohio stateline so any tweeking of the eastern wet gas line gets my attention.

Permalink Reply by Steven A Joliat on December 6, 2011 at 4:49pm

Thanks Bob.  Western PA and the wet gas line may be a bit of a stretch due to the rapidly increasing depth of burial of the Utica Shale in the easterly direction, but also the geothermal heat flow through the Ordovician age rocks affects oil and gas generation as well.  We don't know a lot about it, and this can be a cause for having wet gas or oil where it was not expected to be.  That being said, companies often are reluctant to take on too much of a risk outside of the conventional wisdom.  As they drill out the Marcellus and Utica intervals more information tends to give better estimates and previously unrecognized patterns in the data lead to new ideas about how and when the oil and gas come to be where they are found.  Ideally this reduces economic risks and leads to efficient development and a better economy for all the participants.  Best of luck with your land.

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