By Kalea Hall
YOUNGSTOWN Vindicator
http://www.vindy.com/news/2015/aug/29/oil-and-gas-production-in-ohio-valley-gu/
Low commodity prices may be hurting them, but that didn’t stop Ohio’s oil and gas producers from pumping out product at record-breaking numbers in the second quarter of 2015.
Production of natural gas in Mahoning County has increased by more than 60 percent for the second quarter of 2015, and oil production also increased, according to data recently released by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
The county’s 11 producing wells reported total production of more than 1.14 billion cubic feet of natural gas compared with nine producing wells in 2014 with 699 million cubic feet of natural gas.
The county has 13 wells, but two did not post any production results for oil or natural gas in the second quarter of 2015. Four did not post any production results in the second quarter of 2014.
Oil production in the county was up from the 6,058 barrels in the second quarter of 2014 to 6,311 barrels of oil in the second quarter of 2015.
“We continue to prove that the Utica [Shale] is viable,” said Shawn Bennett, executive vice president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association.
Columbiana County also had increases for natural gas and oil. In the second quarter of 2014 the county had 34 wells, with nine posting zero results. This second quarter the county had 61 wells with 10 posting zero results for both oil and natural gas.
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Production of natural gas went from more than 4.44 billion cubic feet in the second quarter of 2014 up to more than 9.84 billion cubic feet in the second quarter of 2015. Oil production went from 28,581 barrels to 56,733 barrels.
In Trumbull County, production was down for the seven producing wells in the second quarter of 2015 over the second quarter of 2014.
The county’s wells produced more than 177 million cubic feet of natural gas compared with more than 331 million cubic feet in the second quarter of 2014 when one more well was producing and other wells were producing more.
The county’s oil production took a drastic cut going from 13,674 barrels of oil down to 2,731 barrels.
Overall, Ohio’s horizontal shale wells produced 5,578,255 barrels of oil and 221 billion cubic feet of natural gas.
ODNR says these numbers break all previous production reporting records for the past 100 years. Production continues to rise as oil increased by more than 3.1 million barrels and gas by more than 133 billion cubic feet compared with the second quarter of 2014.
The new report lists 1,020 wells, 978 of which reported production, up from the 504 wells reporting production halfway through 2014.
What’s needed to help spur more growth is added infrastructure to carry the product and large, industrial natural-gas users.
“We really, as a region, need to focus on attracting large scale industrial users of natural gas,” he said. “I think the production numbers continue to show at the right price the Utica works well. Right now we are seeing a depressed market.”
Bennett predicts a drop in production later in the year once the low cost for commodities makes its presence known with the cutback in capital investments and reduction in rigs.
Baker Hughes, an oil field service company, has listed an August average rig count of 19 compared with the August 2014 average rig count of 42.
On Friday, the price of oil was about $42.56, down by more than $50 from a year ago, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The cost of natural gas was at $2.638/mmBtu. MMBtu equals 1 million British thermal units, according to the EIA.
George Mokrzan, senior economist at Huntington Bank, said the production shows the rewards of investments, but as long as the price stays suppressed capital spending will reduce.
“I think definitely, overall, it is a positive,” he said. “It diversifies the economy. It gives it an element of energy.
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