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Permalink Reply by MJ on June 27, 2014 at 9:14am

Adding partial content of above article for quick view: 

Mark has been a rather informative member of this forum for quite some time, and I wish to bring this to our immediate attention.  Thanks TJT for posting this...

 

Mark McGrail of the United Shaleowners Association -- a loosely knit group of Trumbull County landowners -- agreed. But he said patience is wearing thin among those hoping to cash in on royalties.

"We deal with people that have land developed by both Halcon and BP. Those people are disappointed," he said. "They were excited about the possibility of their oil and gas rights being developed. The impression they received was they thought it was over and done with.

"A lot of landowners, though, don't understand how some of these companies operate," McGrail added. "I've been talking to these people and trying to explain, saying in other words to just sort of take a pill and calm down a bit; there are companies that will eventually come in and develop the resources."

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Permalink Reply by Paul Martinelli on June 27, 2014 at 9:31am

Ongoing Tests Look for New Technologies

EVEP, through a joint venture (JV) with Chesapeake and Total, has since resumed the quest to test the viability of the Utica's oil window in Ohio. Of its 173,000 net working interest acres, 81,000 are located within the volatile oil window. The company estimates that there are between 20-30 million bbl of oil in place across 79,000 acres in Stark, Tuscarawas and Guernsey counties. It is also expected to release the first data set from its highly anticipated Parker well in Tuscarawas County later this summer, with results from a couple other wells in the oil window due later this year (see Shale Daily, May 13)

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Permalink Reply by 015334grltd9m on June 28, 2014 at 12:32am

Like I was saying all along Trumbull is mostly in the oil window.  BP, Keystone Mountaineer, Halcon BEUSA, and CHK, wells are EXPLORATORY.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Murphy on July 31, 2014 at 12:21am

The latest report from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources proves what already had become apparent in the Mahoning Valley: Utica Shale drilling activity has moved to southern Ohio and doesn’t appear to be coming back.

The core of the Utica is in a narrow swath in Belmont, Monroe, Noble and Harrison counties, said Gabriele Sorbara, an analyst for Topeka Capital Markets.

The issue in the northern part of the shale play, which includes Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull counties, boils down to production, he said. It takes pretty solid results to make wells financially viable when they cost $9 million to $10 million to drill and frack.

“The production results simply weren’t there for the northern [Utica] wells,” Sorbara said. “The shale play [exploration] appears to be moving from southeast Ohio into West Virginia and will continue into southwest Pennsylvania in Washington and Green counties.”

It became clear when companies such as BP and Halcon started to sell their leases in the northern Utica that Valley wells didn’t have high-enough production, he said.

“It just looks like anything north of Carroll County isn’t going to work,” Sorbara said.

Experts from Wells Fargo Securities also state that most companies are seeking the Utica’s natural-gas-heavy portion, which is based in Belmont, Guernsey, Monroe, Noble and Carroll counties.

“It’s still early in the play with industry still zeroing in on the ‘core’ while optimizing completion techniques — but the uptick in permitting activity in Monroe and Belmont indicates, at least for now, that operators are chasing the dry-gas window,” according to Wells Fargo Securities’ statement on Utica exploration and production.

The wet gas — it contains oil or heavier gases such as propane — is great, but there remain issues with processing it and other infrastructure in the Utica that make that portion of the play more challenging, Sorbara said. Those issues are why a number of wells have been tested and then capped, he added.

Sorbara said there is a chance wells in the northern part of the Utica could become fiscally viable if the price of gas increases.

But production in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties pales in comparison with the best wells in the state.

There are wells within the shale’s core as Sorbara defined it that have higher production than all the wells in Columbiana combined, according to the ODNR report.

A good well would produce 18 billion cubic feet of natural gas or 3 million barrels of oil over a 30-year lifespan, Sorbara said.

- See more at: http://www.vindy.com/news/2014/jul/10/utica-shale-activity-continue...

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Permalink Reply by Joseph-Ohio on July 31, 2014 at 1:29am

Old article discussed at length back in the beginning of July.

IMHO market control / landowner beatdown propaganda.

SOSDD.

They'll develop the north at their pace.

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