From Ohio.com 

http://www.ohio.com/news/utica-marcellus-shales-are-ripe-with-natur...

Excerpts:

The Utica-Marcellus region is now the third-largest producer of natural gas in North America with 12.5 million cubic feet per day, behind only Texas and western Canada

Some utilities are switching from coal to cleaner-burning natural gas.

Ohio has four new or proposed gas-fired plants and Pennsylvania has eight, alliance officials said.

In 2010, natural gas produced 5 percent of Ohio’s electricity. Today it’s up to 17 percent.

Natural gas now produces $16.2 billion for Ohio’s economy, the alliance says.

New demand for natural gas in Ohio is expected to grow nearly 400 million cubic feet per day in Ohio in the next 10 years. Peak demand is expected to grow by nearly 500 million cubic feet per day in Pennsylvania in that time. But production will dwarf those totals, Carlson said.

Current natural gas forecasts from the Utica and Marcellus may be too low and could turn out to be even higher, he said. There is a “significant potential” for even more natural gas being produced in eastern Ohio and Pennsylvania, he said.

What’s been developed in the Utica and Marcellus shale, to date, is “the tip of iceberg,” said James Crews of MarkWest Energy Partners, a major pipeline and processing company.

He predicted that the two shales will still be producing for the “next 100 to 200 years.”