COLUMBUS: Oil production in Ohio nearly doubled from 2012 to 2013 and natural gas production grew in that time by nearly 2½ times, according to new report.
The assessment came on Thursday from Peter MacKenzie of the 3,200-member Ohio Oil and Gas Association in a report released at his group’s 67th annual winter meeting.
Oil production in Ohio grew from 4.9 million barrels in 2012 to 9.7 million 42-gallon barrels in 2013, according to MacKenzie’s estimate.
Meanwhile, natural gas production climbed from about 83 billion cubic feet in 2012 to 203 billion cubic feet in 2013.
The new data in the DeBrosse Report “should get people’s attention,” MacKenzie told the audience. “They got my attention.”
There is growing evidence that Ohio really is “on the leading edge of a boom” in the Utica shale in eastern Ohio, he said.
Ohio’s totals are still far behind the top natural gas states like Texas, Louisiana and Pennsylvania.
MacKenzie’s estimates are the first numbers released on possible production totals from 2013, at a time when the Utica shale development is starting to take off.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has released partial production totals from 2013, but six months of data on oil and natural gas production has not yet been released. That release is expected soon.
MacKenzie said his estimates might be a little high, but both figures are in the ball park, he added.
The most 2013 wells were drilled by Chesapeake Energy with 159, he said. The company had drilled 158 the year before.
The next most-active drillers were Eclipse Resources with 30 wells, EnerVest Ltd. with 26 wells, Gulfport Energy with 25 wells and Knox Energy Inc. with 21 wells.
Chesapeake Energy’s wells stretched 1.7 million feet below ground, vertically and horizontally, according to MacKenzie’s report. Gulfport Energy was No. 2 with 316,333 feet of wells.
In all, Ohio’s 2013 wells stretched just over 4 million feet vertically and horizontally, he said.
That is an increase of 465,926 feet, or 13 percent, from 2012, he said.
“It may be a record,” he added. Ohio’s wells are getting deeper and are extending farther outward, he said.
Carroll County led the state with 113 wells in 2013. It was followed by Harrison County with 40, Stark with 39, Knox with 37 and Noble with 33.
Those totals are horizontal wells plus vertical-only wells. Ohio had 580 wells drilled in 2013.
A total of 113 different owners drilled Ohio wells in 2013.
Officials of three energy companies also raved about Utica development and Utica potential during a separate program at the conference that attracted more than 1,500.
Colorado-based PDC Energy has drilled 14 wells in Guernsey, Noble and Washington counties, said chief operating officer Bart Brookman.
His company expects to have more rigs drilling and to double or triple leased acreage in the future, he said.
It has eight employees based in Marietta and expects that to grow to about 30 in the future, he said.
Antero Resources has four rigs drilling in southeast Ohio and expects to add a fifth rig this year and perhaps two more next year, said senior operations engineer Tim Clawson.
The company drilled 18 wells in Ohio and expects to drill 24 wells in 2014 and 60 wells a year in coming years, he said.
His company also has extensive drilling operations in northern West Virginia.
“We’re scaling up,” he said of the Utica shale in the two states.
Pennsylvania-based Eclipse Resources has three drilling rigs in Ohio and expects to add two more rigs this year, said vice president Melissa Hamsher.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.