OHIO Utica-Related Investment List at $22.3B and Growing

OHIO Utica-Related Investment List at $22.3B and Growing

From an Article by Jamison Cocklin, Natural Gas Intelligence, November 17, 2014

Oil- and gas-related projects and new business opportunities that have either been announced or established in Ohio over the last six months are worth at least $3.5 billion, according to a monthly report compiled by the Columbus, OH-based law firm Bricker & Eckler.

All told, a list compiled by the law firm that includes dozens of shale-related projects and new companies that have arrived in the state since 2010 represents $22.3 billion in state investments. The latest $3.5 billion is mostly related to investments for new pipelines and processing facilities in the state.

Among some of the recent announcements, Appalachian Resins Inc. has said it plans to spend $1 billion on a small-scale ethane cracker in Monroe County, while the Columbia Pipeline Group has proposed spending $1.75 billion on the Leach XPress, a 160-mile pipeline that would transport Utica Shale gas to West Virginia. Regency Energy Partners LP also announced a plan to spend $500 million with an affiliate of American Energy Partners LP to construct the Utica Ohio River Project, a 52-mile pipeline that will connect with the Rockies Express.

Like other law firms in the state, Bricker & Eckler compiles its report from news media reports and keeps a running tally of projects that are either proposed or under construction. The firm’s investment estimates also don’t include projects that have not provided any.

Ohio has permitted 1,630 horizontal Utica Shale wells to date and 1,176 have been drilled. It also has permitted 44 horizontal Marcellus Shale wells and 27 have been drilled. Last week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimated that operators in Ohio’s Utica Shale will produce nearly 1.7 Bcf/d of natural gas next month.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Magnum Hunter has ‘monster’ on its hands with biggest Utica well – ever in Tyler County, WV

From an Article by Tom Knox, Ohio Business Journal, September 25, 2014

So far, natural gas drillers have only dipped their toes into West Virginia’s Utica shale play. It’s safe to say some might dive in head first now.

Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. announced results of a well on its Stewart Winland pad in Tyler County, WV. It’s a certified monster, the biggest in the Utica shale play so far and, the company says, one of the biggest in U.S. shale, period. The 1300U well initially produced 46.5 million cubic feet of natural gas a day.

Production from the Utica shale keeps expanding. This time, it’s south and east of its mainstay in eastern Ohio. A few months ago, Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s results in north-central Pennsylvania showed potential for the play even farther east and north.

We think this well is on the equivalent of the Rice well. Pennsylvania-based Rice Energy Inc., at the time had the top-producing natural gas well, at 41.7 million cubic feet of natural gas a day, in Belmont County, OH.

Magnum Hunter is an early adopter of tapping West Virginia’s Utica play. This well was only the second drilled in the state; Chevron Corp. drilled the first in Marshall County earlier this year.

The news is good for Magnum Hunter which has 200,000 acres in the Utica and Marcellus plays in Ohio and West Virginia, 43,000 of which overlap in so-called “stacked pays,” of which the company also is an early adopter.

“We believe that this new discovery on the Stewart Winland pad represents the greatest flow rate and one of the highest sustained flowing casing pressures of any Utica well drilled in the entire play of Ohio and West Virginia,” Magnum Hunter CEO Evans said in a statement, where he called the well a “monster.” “Additionally, it is one of the highest flow rate gas wells ever reported in any shale play located in the U.S.,” he said.

One caveat on the well: It’s almost entirely dry gas. The well is about 98 percent methane and just 1.52 percent ethane. Ethane is the valuable liquid that Gulf Coast petrochemical facilities need and is leading to much of the pipeline activity taking fossil fuels from Appalachia to the Gulf Coast.

The company said three other wells on the Stewart Winland pad have tapped into the Marcellus shale play and are ready for sales.

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

Tagged as: drilling, fracking, pipelines, Utica Shale