Wednesday, September 17, 2014YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- The state's chief geologist says that the future of oil and gas exploration across Ohio might rest with improved technology and other shale plays that appear to have the same sort of rich organic content as the Utica/Point Pleasant shale, today a focal point of the industry.
"We're investigating the Rhinestreet shale and the Huron shale," said Tom Serenko, Ohio state geologist, Tuesday. "If you look at the cores, you see the similarities to the Point Pleasant. We're dealing with very dark, organic-rich shale."
The Rhinestreet and Huron plays are intervals that help make up the Upper Devonian shale in Ohio, which rests above the Marcellus shale. The Ohio portion of the Marcellus isn't likely to produce a significant amount of natural gas or oil because of its limited scope, Serenko said, but the Upper Devonian could hold promise.
Serenko presented a 45-minute lecture, "The Utica/Point Pleasant Shale: A Geological and Historical Perspective," as part of the Seven Days of STEM series hosted by the Oh Wow! The Roger & Gloria Jones Children's Center for Science & Technology and other public and corporate partners. The lecture was delivered in Moser Hall at Youngstown State University.
Serenko, a 1985 graduate of YSU, has served as the Ohio state geologist since 2012.
The future of energy exploration in Ohio is also likely to include new technologies to enhance oil and gas recovery, Serenko said.
"At the top of that list will probably be CO2 injection," Serenko notes. "CO2 has the ability to lower the viscosity of oil, so by injecting it, it's possible to increase the flow of oil from the well."
He said it might be possible to collect carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants and inject it into the wells to increase oil recovery.
By his admission, Serenko isn't an "oil and gas" geologist, but says that energy companies are homing in on the Utica/Point Pleasant play because of the prospects of oil in the rocks. The Point Pleasant, he said, is likely the source rock for shallower formations such as the Clinton sandstone.
"It's fantastically rich," Serenko said of the Point Pleasant. "It's supplied much of the oil for the oil and gas business in Ohio."
However, Serenko reported, the geology varies from geographic area to area, and described the geology under the Mahoning Valley as a "structurally complex one."
It’s still difficult to ascertain why a series of earthquakes the Ohio Department of Natural Resources linked to injection well and drilling operations shook the region in three sites over the past three years. "We have some preliminary results, but nothing conclusive at this point," he said.
Despite the quakes in the Mahoning Valley -- the latest a 2.1 magnitude tremor at a wastewater injection well site in Weathersfield Township – Serenko said such seismic events are considered rare.
"You need to have a number of conditions which are lining up exactly right for a seismic event," he said. "There has to be a fault. There has to be stresses on the fault, and then that fault has to released by some man-made influence, and that occurrence is quire rare."
Martin Abraham, dean of Youngstown State's college of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, said Serenko's talk was organized by YSU as part of the weeklong celebration.
"Where there's been an opportunity to be engaged, we've tried to be as a partner, or a lead," Abraham said. "It's really an opportunity for all of us to get together, and we brought together a lot of resources from the community and people who have engaged in the planning and bringing it all together."
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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