Thursday, October 16, 2014YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Gas production in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania could reach record levels next year because more pipeline capacity is coming on line across the country, allowing more natural gas from the region to be extracted.
“Once November hits there should be an uptick,” because if the additional pipelines, said Sami Yahya, an energy analyst with Bentek LLC, a Denver-based energy market analytics company.
With added pipeline capacity nationally, companies drilling for natural gas in eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia will benefit. That's because mostly wet gas is found in the shale in this region has liquidity to it and previously had no place to go, Yahya said.
Bentek is forecasting that production in the Northeast, which includes eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia, to reach 18.5 billion cubic feet per day in the next couple of months. Yahya said 16.7 billion cubic feet per day is now being produced, down slightly from the previously reported 17 billion cubic feet per day production, a drop off that can be attributed to pipeline maintenance.
The most recent figures released by the federal government’s Energy Information Agency, shows Utica shale natural gas production is expected to rise by 114 million cubic feet in October and November from the previous month.
Marcellus shale natural gas production meanwhile, is expected to rise in October and November by 217 million cubic feet per day, from the previous month, said the government report, which also tracks production in the Haynesville region in Texas and Louisiana, Eagle Ford in Texas, Permian in Texas and New Mexico, Niobrara in Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska, and Bakken in North Dakota, Montana and parts of Canada.
Of all the regions tracked by the Energy Information Agency, Marcellus shale had the highest forecasted daily increase, the report said.
“These staggering figures are proof positive that our elected officials should politics aside and work to craft common sense policies that maximize the shared economic and environmental benefits tied to safe natural gas development by encouraging continued investment in the Commonwealth,” said Dave Spigelmyer, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, a Pittsburgh trade group, during a recent shale conference gathering.