The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) just announced Ohio’s third quarter production results, which show an impressive doubling of both oil and natural gas production.
In the third quarter of 2015, the Utica shale produced 5,696,780 barrels of oil and 245,747,686 Bcf (245 billion cubic feet) of natural gas. This sets new records as unconventional shale production totals have increased by more than 100 percent since the same quarter last year.
In 2014, Ohio’s wells only produced 15,062,912 barrels of oil and 512,964,465 Mcf of gas for the entire year which means that during the first nine months of 2015, oil and gas production surpassed 2014’s entire production results. This report also indicates that this trend is continuing as there was an increase of 23.8 Bcf and 118,000 barrels since last quarter.
Although rig count has been falling in Ohio overall, production continues to soar in its Southeast, where Belmont County and Monroe County are producing record amounts of natural gas. As for oil, most production in Ohio still remains in Noble, Guernsey, Harrison, and Carroll Counties. As shown below, Rice Drilling remains the top producer with Ascent Resources (formerly American Energy Utica), Chesapeake, and Antero Resources rounding out the top four.
Take a look at the top producing natural gas wells for the third quarter.
The oil window in Ohio’s Utica shale is a bit farther west, as you can see from the results below.
This is all certainly wonderful news for Ohio’s growing economy, which—recent reports indicate– will continue to benefit from shale production and the construction of associated infrastructure for years to come.