The Daily Digger

Nine new permits were issued for horizontal drilling in Ohio's Utica shale last week, according to the weekly report from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Five of those permits were for Monroe County wells, all issued to Gulfport Energy.  Two permits each were for sites in Belmont and Noble counties. This latest activity brings the new cumulative totals for Ohio's Utica shale to 2,330 wells permitted, 1,873 wells drilled, and 1,472 wells producing.  The Utica rig count dropped from a 2016 high of 23 on last week's report to 22 this week. View the report below or download it by clicking here. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From the Akron Beacon Journal: Lynn Kemp remembers the day her 82-year-old mother received a letter saying companies intended to build part of the Nexus pipeline under her family’s York Township farm: Aug. 24, 2014.  Her fight against the proposed pipeline to carry natural gas collected by hydraulic fracturing from Ohio’s Marcellus and Utica shale areas to Canada started then and continued Saturday on Medina Square where she held up a handmade sign reading, “Honk for clean water, clean air, safe soil.”  About 100 like-minded protesters joined her as they chanted and marched around the historic park, vowing to continue their fight against the gas transmission line even as the project cleared a major federal hurdle.  In late November, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) determined there are no major environmental issues that should keep the proposed 256.6-mile pipeline from being built.  About 200 miles of the 36-inch-diameter pipe would run thro...

From OilPrice.com: The resurgence of U.S. shale will undermine the OPEC-fueled price rally, capping oil prices at roughly $50 per barrel through 2017. That is the conclusion from the EIA’s latest Short-Term Energy Outlook , which forecasts WTI to average $50.66 per barrel and Brent to average just $51.66 per barrel next year.  The agency also cast doubt on OPEC’s ability to follow through on its deal. “The extent to which the announced plans will be carried out and actually reduce supply below levels that would have occurred in their absence remains uncertain.” But even if they do, any price rally above $50 per barrel will merely spark a revival in U.S. shale drilling, which will “encourage a return to supply growth in U.S. tight oil more quickly than currently expected.” In other words, the OPEC deal won’t fuel the sustained rally that oil bulls have hoped for.  In fact, the oil bust could persist for another year, according to the EIA. Rising U.S. oil production nex...

by Jackie Stewart, Energy in Depth As we wind down 2016 and look ahead to 2017, it’s time to stop and take look at how amazing Ohio’s  Utica Shale production  has been despite a significant pullback in drilling activity due to low commodity prices. After six years of exploration and production, the Utica continues to break  production  records and the best wells continue to trend farther down the Ohio River. For the past few years, EID has been researching this trend and reporting what we see first-hand on the ground. Our extensive research and analysis has led us to select  Monroe and Belmont counties as the Ohio Utica counties to watch in 2017 . Monroe County EID chose  Monroe County as one of the Utica counties to watch in 2015 , and we were correct, as more and more staggering natural gas production started coming out of this region that year. Still, Monroe County’s full potential has been impeded by bureaucratic inertia since 2011, as the Bureau...

by Bob White, President, Ohio State Grange Since 1867, the National Grange has worked to elevate and enrich the quality of life for rural Americans and all they provide for our nation and the world. Thanks to these hardworking men and women, America’s food supply is the most vibrant and diverse in existence, with an agriculture economy that exported over $133 billion worth of goods in 2015 to countries all around the globe. However, while output and exports have risen steadily over the years, so have production costs and the struggle that agricultural producers now experience to keep their operations afloat – especially as it relates to energy expenditures. For the average American farm, 30% of all operating capital is spent on energy. Natural gas energy in particular has become a must-have input for American farmers, providing between one third and one half of the fossil fuel energy used by farms in the United States over the last 40 years. However, an outdated and unreliable e...

From the New York Times: The Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that hydraulic fracturing, the oil and gas extraction technique also known as fracking, has contaminated drinking water in some circumstances, according to the final version of a comprehensive study first issued in 2015.  The new version is far more worrying than the first, which found “no evidence that fracking systemically contaminates water” supplies. In a significant change, that conclusion was deleted from the final study.  “E.P.A. scientists chose not to include that sentence. The scientists concluded it could not be quantitatively supported,” said Thomas A. Burke, the E.P.A.’s science adviser, and deputy assistant administrator of the agency’s Office of Research and Development. Not surprisingly, this news has been reported on very differently depending on the pre-existing stance on fracking of the source. For example, here is how anti-fracking site ThinkProgress reported on the news :...

Pittsburgh, PA  – The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) assessed civil penalties to Rice Energy subsidiaries for multiple violations of environmental laws at 10 well sites and 6 pipeline locations, with a total fine of over $3.5 million.  DEP and Rice Energy signed seven separate enforcement documents addressing the violations that occurred at sites in Washington and Greene Counties. The violations span several years and include failing to obtain required permits, failing to maintain erosion and sedimentation controls, releasing wastewater to the ground and waters of the Commonwealth, and failing to have a pre-operational inspection of a well site by DEP prior to drilling, among others. “Minimizing the impacts that drilling activity has on Pennsylvania waterways is a key part of responsible development,” said DEP Acting Secretary Patrick McDonnell. “While many of these violations have been corrected and remediated, they should have not happened in the f...

From Columbus Business First: An oil and gas driller active in the Utica shale play has tacked on more acreage in eastern Ohio.  Gulfport Energy Corp. has purchased 12,600 undeveloped acres in Monroe County for $87 million, the Oklahoma City-based company said.  The seller was not disclosed, and the deal is expected to close this month.  Gulfport (NASDAQ:GPOR) said the acreage is close to its existing holdings. Click here to continue reading. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has now released the production data from the Utica shale for the third quarter of 2016. As always, we are going to give you a look at how the numbers compare to past quarters, past years, and how they break down among the various drillers who are active in Ohio and the counties where they are drilling. We also have the top 10 oil and gas wells detailed below. PRODUCTION RATE COMPARISONS First up, let's take a look at how the quarterly data compares from the 1st quarter of 2014 through the third quarter of 2016. As a reminder, all oil figures are 42-gallon barrels, and all gas production is measured in MCF: QUARTER # OF WELLS/# WITH DATA OIL GAS DAYS OIL/DAY OIL/WELL GAS/DAY GAS/WELL 2014-1 476/418 1,950,979 67,333,945 28,019 70 4,667 2,403 161,086 2014-2 562/504 2,467,283 88,673,741 37,922 65 4,895 2,338 175,940 2014-3 717/674 3,013,667 132,017,386 50,858 59 4,471 2,596 195,871 2014-4 828/779 3,558,836 164,815,008 62,527 57 ...

The Utica shale rig count continues its late-2016 dance on the latest weekly permitting report from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, while permitting slowed a bit from the previous week's activity. Three permits were issued for Monroe County wells, and one each for Belmont and Harrison County sites, for a total of five new permits listed for last week.  That is down from 13 on the previous report. Meanwhile, the Utica rig count rose to 23, which is up from 19 on last week's report and represents a new high mark for 2016.  This fits with a nationwide trend of rig counts on the rise. Now there are 2,323 permits issued, 1,865 wells drilled, and 1,472 wells producing. View the report below or by clicking right here . Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From the ODNR : During the third quarter of 2016, Ohio’s horizontal shale wells produced 3,954,095 barrels of oil and 360,681,356 Mcf (360 billion cubic feet) of natural gas, according the figures released today by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR). Natural gas production from the third quarter of 2016 showed an increase over the third quarter of 2015, while oil production was reduced for that same period.     2015 QUARTER 3 (SHALE) 2016 QUARTER 3 (SHALE) PERCENTAGE CHANGE Barrels of oil 5,994,632 3,954,095 (34.04%) Mcf of natural gas 247,541,749 360,681,356 45.71% The ODNR quarterly report lists 1,492 horizontal shale wells, 1,464 of which reported oil and natural gas production during the quarter. Of the 1,464 reporting oil and natural gas results:   The average amount of oil produced was 2,701 barrels. The average amount of natural gas produced was 246,367 Mcf. The average number of third quarter days in production was 85. All horizon...