Oil production in Ohio’s Utica Shale dropped sharply in fourth quarter 2016, while natural gas production continued to increase, according to a new report from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
It reported that 4Q 2016 oil production was down 43.9% to 3.6 million barrels. That compares to 6.4 million barrels in 4Q 2015.
Natural gas production grew 14.16% from 302 billion cubic feet in 4Q 2015 to 345 billion cubic feet in 4Q 2016.
Full-year 2016 production of oil dropped 22.14% from 2015. The total declined from 23.1 million barrels to 18.0 million barrels.
At the same time, natural gas production jumped by 43.39% from 955 billion cubic feet in 2015 to 1.4 trillion cubic feet in 2016, Kallanish Energy reports.
That is the first time that production from Ohio’s horizontal Utica wells has exceeded 1 trillion cubic feet.
The quarterly report lists 1,561 Utica wells, of which 1,511 reported production.
The typical Utica well reported quarterly production of 2,392 barrels of oil and 228,664,000 cubic feet of natural gas, ODNR said in its quarterly report.
The results were not unexpected due to low commodity prices and fewer wells being drilled in the Utica Shale.
The top oil producer in Ohio was Chesapeake Energy. The top natural gas producer in Ohio was Gulfport Energy.
The top gas well in Ohio in 4Q 2016 was an Ascent Resources well in Jefferson County with 1.6 billion cubic feet. Eclipse Resources Purple Hayes well in Guernsey County was the top oil producing well with 75,795 barrels in 4Q 2016.
The gas totals include natural gas liquids.
The report is available at http://oilandgas.ohiodnr.gov/production.