Monday, March 17, 2014

Utica Shale Activity Report, March 15, 2014

The latest Shale Well Drilling & Permitting report released by the Ohio DNR shows
  • Wells drilling increased by 10 to 113
  • Wells producing stands at 385, equal to last week's report
  • New permits for the week increased by 26: Hess (11, all in Harrison county), Gulfport (7 in Belmont county), Antero (4, Monroe and Noble County), and Chesapeake (4, Carroll, Columbiana, and Noble Counties)
Total wells drilling looks to be a record high.

Map of new permits issued week of March 10, 2014

 
Click here for Larger Map with Filters enabled

Utica Shale Rig Count - Where Does it Rank Against Other U.S. Basins?

Looking at the latest Rig Count numbers (March 14, 2014) from around the U.S helps to put Utica drilling activity in perspective.

U.S. Rig Count by Basin as of March 14,  2014 (Total = 1,809, Horizontal = 1212)*
 Horizontal Rig Count by Basins (Top 10)

- Permian (271)
- Eagle Ford (198)
- Williston / Bakken and Three Forks (168)
- Marcellus (72) 
- Mississippian (66)
- Granite Wash (52)
- DJ-Niobrara (50)
- Haynesville (43)
- Utica (37)
- Cana Woodfiord (31)

*Source: Baker Hughes US Rig Count by Basin, March 14, 2014


Friday, March 14, 2014

Utica Shale Ohio - Who is Drilling Where

As of March 8, 2014 there are 103 wells classified as drilling in the Ohio Utica Shale. Below is a click-able, zoom-able, map identifying the wells by location and other attributes (operator, well name, county, township, etc).


Click here for large Map with Filters Enabled

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Utica Shale Ohio - By the Numbers, Up and Up

A look at Ohio DNR reports over time offers some insight worth noting.

Well Status
Below I've taken report data from each of the last 13 months and displayed the data on a graph.

Ohio Utica Shale - Wells and status over time (Data source Ohio DNR reports)














Drilling activity is far above what is was the first seven months of last year and crossed 100 wells classified as "drilling" in February of 2014.

Wells classified as "producing" are showing the steepest climb, believed to be the result of both rising natural gas prices and infrastructure improvements as noted in earlier posts and widely reported by the media in general.

There is also a steep reduction in wells classified as "drilled" and waiting to come online, perhaps indicating that wells are more quickly moving into production after they are drilled now that the situation for producers is more favorable.

The backlog of wells classified as "permitted" is holding relatively steady, indicating that there is a sufficient backlog to sustain desired drilling activity.

The relatively high level of drilling activity should mean that permitting will need to be maintained at a high rate to match.

Permit activity

Permit activity looks poised to take off after a brief pause in December 2013 and January 2014, a weather related phenomena perhaps. Natural gas prices and the need to keep wells funneling into the system (to drill and produce) appears to have caused an upturn in February. One month does not make a trend, though everything seems to point to increased activity all around. 

Utica Shale Ohio wells permitted by month (Data source Ohio DNR reports)













We typically see an increase in permitting activity as we move out of holiday and winter months as well. All systems appear to be "go" for the Utica Shale.