Wednesday, August 13, 2014WASHINGTON -- Natural gas production from the Utica shale within Ohio is expected to increase tenfold from 155 million cubic feet a day in January 2012 to a projected 1.3 billion cubic feet per day by next month, according to a newly released report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The EIA included Utica results for the first time in its monthly drilling productivity report.
According to the report, the Utica is "one of the fastest growing natural gas production areas of the United States" as evidenced by increased drilling productivity and drilling activity.
Drilling productivity, or the average monthly production from new wells per drilling rig, has increased from 300,000 cubic feet per day in January 2012 to an estimated five million cubic feet per day today.
This increase outpaces the growth rate witnessed in the Haynesville shale in Texas from 2009 to 2011 and the Marcellus shale in Pennsylvania from 2010 to 2012, the report shows. Drilling activity, meanwhile, has stabilized between 20 and 25 rigs since early 2013, the report says. Fewer than 10 rigs operated in the play before 2012.
Because of relatively low rig counts in the Utica, overall production is on pace with production in Eagle Ford shale in Texas between 2010 and 2012.
Utica production has ramped up considerably since new processing and pipeline systems came on line, the report noted.
In late June, the Rockies Express Pipeline, or REX, started transporting gas from the Utica westward while midstream companies such as Denver-based MarkWest this month announced expansions at its cryogenic plant in Cadiz, Ohio, in Harrison County and its Hopedale fractionation plant, also in Harrison.
Three other plants -- Pennant Midstream's cryogenic processing plant in Mahoning County, the UEO Buckeye plant in Columbiana County, and the UEO Buckeye fractionation plant in Harrison County -- started operations earlier this year.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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