U.S. Petroleum Exploration Opens Office in Canfield
CANFIELD, Ohio -- A company that wants to play a part in oil and gas development in the Utica shale play has set up shop in the heart of the Mahoning Valley.
U.S. Petroleum Exploration Inc. officially opened for business during a ribbon-cutting ceremony held this morning at its offices at 4137 Boardman-Canfield Road.
"Right now we're looking at several different portions of the play to operate," says John Navarro, project manager for U.S. Petroleum. "We're looking for some permitting that we have underway right now."
Navarro said the startup company is working with a number of affiliates and has access to roughly 150,000 acres across the Utica play in eastern Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia for oil and gas exploration.
"We're basically the project managers" for drilling operations, he said. "We take the entire project from start to finish, utilizing everybody in the industry that we can utilize." The company employs 25, and will train new employees as business grows.
Investors from the Mahoning Valley and Canada created the company and wanted to locate its headquarters here, since the region lies within the core of the Utica play.
U.S. Petroleum has positions on acreage in Coshocton, Guernsey and Belmont counties in the southern portion of the play, and is looking seriously at developing Mahoning County in the future.
"Do we want to hit a home run in our backyard? Absolutely," Navarro said.
Navarro believes there is opportunity for exploration in the western portion of the Mahoning Valley, and the wells already drilled in this region have produced solid results.
"Production has looked pretty decent," he said, noting the company hopes to have its first test wells developed soon. "We are in the process of acquiring permits and looking to have test wells in by the end of this year."
Moreover, Navarro said that the company wants to use new technology that greatly reduces the amount of water used during the drilling and completion process.
Since 2011, energy companies have canvassed the Utica shale in order to drill for natural gas and the more profitable natural gas liquids found in shale rock more than a mile below the earth's surface.
However, the industry's use of hydraulic fracturing -- a process that injects water, sand and a smattering of chemicals at high pressure to break up tightly packed shale formations -- has led to opposition by some groups that contend the practice contaminates water aquifers and has generated millions of gallons of toxic waste.
"Some of the innovations we may employ is waterless fracking," Navarro said. "A lot of the folks in the area are concerned about what happens to the waste. There are some alternatives out there."
Navarro conceded that the technology isn't fully practicable yet, but the company is working with other interests to develop exploration techniques that are easy on the environment.
"We are working with companies that are not necessarily based in the United States to try to come up with a greener way" to extract oil and gas, Navarro said.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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