Comment

Comment by Glenn R Alberth Jr on June 23, 2013 at 10:56pm

Hey , Sam can you tell me how many different shale layers there are in Crawford county that would be of Interest to the drillers ? I know of the Utica-Point Pleasant. Shale . I have heard there several layers stacked ?

Comment by sldouglass on June 23, 2013 at 10:58am

Hopefully, I am wrong.  I was wrong once before.

Comment by Jim Dickinson on June 23, 2013 at 10:33am

As usual, the regular folks are left behind no matter how much they pay attention ...

Comment by sldouglass on June 23, 2013 at 10:29am

Try to get what Texans pay Texans with the knowledge that our stuff is better if only because it is closer to Eastern Markets.  And we have layers of stuff.  In Texas they talk about one shale in an area for the most part.

If you need the money, take what you can get in a hurry.  They have a lot of time bedfore they really develop areas like Crawford County where the shales are deep and expensive.

Comment by Tom Tarkowski on June 23, 2013 at 10:05am

$4000.00 an acre average doesn't sound too shabby to me.

Comment by sldouglass on June 23, 2013 at 6:46am

part 2

There are a number of companies such as DB Energy, Devon Energy and Chesapeake Energy that are trying to get rid of interests in the Utica Shale, Rogers said.

She said that in January 2012, companies were paying as much as $15,000 for rights in the Utica Shale. “Now those rights are selling for between $1,000 and $8,000 — let’s call it an average of $4,000 an acre,” she said. “It’s clear the industry now looks at the Utica Shale differently.”

None of the shale realities has been long-term, she added.

“All the companies move on to the next latest and greatest,” she said.

Most people who sign a lease will not get that much more money than the lease bonus, Rogers said.

“If you’re in a sweet spot, you might get some big [royalty] checks early on for maybe six to 12 months, but you really don’t see much after that,” she said.

The companies involved with the Utica Shale remain very optimistic about its future, said Dr. Jeffrey C. Dick, professor and chairman of Youngstown State University’s Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences who studies the Utica Shale.

Part of the current problem is there are not enough processing facilities to handle wet gas, Dick said. There are several processing plants that are getting closer to operating, however.

“There was an awful lot of hype [about the shale], which always comes along with this type of thing,” he said.

The early expectations were unrealistic. People expected the shale to be developed much quicker than realistically was possible, Dick said.*

Comment by sldouglass on June 23, 2013 at 6:45am

CONSOL Speaks  part 1

There are both economic and technological reasons to explain why companies are focusing on just a few Ohio counties within the Utica Shale, an energy representative says.

Harry Schurr, general manager of Utica operations for CONSOL Energy, said the western portion of the shale including Ohio counties such as Coshocton, Muskingum, Stark and Summit, which contains significantly more oil, is too shallow and does not contain enough pressure to economically extract the oil.

Schurr spoke Friday at a Columbiana Area Chamber of Commerce event at Das Dutch Haus.

In the eastern portion of the Utica, in counties such as Belmont and Monroe in Ohio and continuing into West Virginia and Pennsylvania, there is mostly dry gas, but extracting the dry gas isn’t as economical as extracting the dry gas in the Marcellus Shale because the Marcellus is geologically shallower than the Utica and therefore cheaper to drill and complete, Schurr said.

Oil and gas companies, therefore, are focusing on the condensate-heavy portions of the Utica play in Jefferson, Noble, Harrison, Guernsey and Belmont counties, he said.

Natural-gas condensate is a low-density mixture of hydrocarbon liquids that exists in the raw natural gas produced from many natural-gas fields.

“Condensate sells for about $90 a barrel,” Schurr said.

The best-producing well for CONSOL in Ohio is in Noble County. It produces 768 barrels of condensate per day, and about 12 million cubic feet of natural gas, he said. Conversely, a well less than two miles away produces only 10 barrels of condensate per day and 9 million cubic feet of natural gas.

“There are a lot of Wall Street analysts who say the Utica Shale isn’t as big as it was advertised,” Schurr said. “I think it’s more accurate to say we’ve identified the sweet spot.”

One of those analysts who has been critical of the Utica Shale exploration is Deborah Rogers, from Energy Policy Forum and a former investment banker and financial consultant.

“The Utica looks like it’s not going to be what it was promoted to be, and that message needs to get out to Ohioans,” she said.

Comment by sldouglass on June 23, 2013 at 6:38am

If you want to get things into perspective see:

Landowner Challenges / Surface Use / CONSOL / Unitization / Maps / Field Production Ranking / "Weekly Shale" Update (6/20/13)

Weeklyshale@weeklyshale.com    See:  CONSOL Speaks

There is a useful discussion of why producers go first to one place and determine where to do drilling based on costs and potential return.  If the shale is not deep enough, there  apparently enough pressure to drive it to the surface.  On the other hand if the reserve is very deep, drilling is costly etc. etc.  The shale is deep in Crawford County.  One can guess that the longer horizontal drilling is to help spread out the costs.  2 miles deep then 2 miles horizontal.  Not as much fun for the producer as the SW corner of PA where the the producing shale is less than a mile deep and the horizontals are less than a mile.  2 mile horizontals could pose some real problems, particularly if there is some guy with just an acre in the path of the horizontal that just does not want to lease or sell.

Comment by William J. Britton on June 21, 2013 at 4:32am

March 2012. Crawford County The offers for land leasing was all over the Board. from $ 50.00 to up to and including $ 5000.00 and acre. A Quote from  Tom Cruise said in a movie "Show ME THE MONEY".    I AM STILL WAITING. LOL. Maybe because of the tax laws in the state of Pa and all the permit fee Governments State and Local that  have put on the Oil & Gas industry that they have left Pa and are looking elsewhere? J.I.M.O.

Comment by Jim Litwinowicz on June 20, 2013 at 2:29am

Jesse; things were certainly different  back then. Since then gas prices plummeted to below $2/MCF and spooked them away.  Plus, southern Ohio became a focus of the E & Ps as it is oil and condensate rich.  Additionally, other shale plays across the country have become prospective. But since gas prices have rebounded there is again some interest in NE Pa. As a few more wells in the area are completed, the companies will have a much better idea of what is where and just what they think its worth. And additional infrastructure will be coming online soon. Look for more activity in the near future.

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 27
• 28
• 29
• 30
• 31
• …
• 151
• Next ›
• Page