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From NewsOutlet.org
Utica shale and fracking news
- EPA study on fracking threat to water will take years
- Speedy review of gas export process pledged by energy secretary
- Map, details emerge about proposed $1.5 billion gas pipeline that would cross swaths of area counties
- Kasich revising Ohio drilling-tax plan
- Companies facing state charges over illegal brine dumping in Ohio’s Belmont County
- Ohio accuses company of illegally dumping shale drilling brine waste
- Colorado energy processor expands in Ohio
- Shale money could result in reduced assessments for 500,000 property owners
- Security heavy at injection well meeting at Wingfoot Lake
- Ohio injection well operator fights state action
Utica and Marcellus shale web sites
Ohio Department of Natural Resources' Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management State agency Web site.ODNR Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management. State drilling permits. List is updated weekly.
ODNR Division of Geological Survey.
Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
Ohio State University Extension.
Ohio Farm Bureau.
Ohio Oil and Gas Association, a Granville-based group that represents 1,500 Ohio energy-related companies.
Ohio Oil & Gas Energy Education Program.
Energy In Depth, a trade group.
Marcellus and Utica Shale Resource Center by Ohio law firm Bricker & Eckler.
Utica Shale, a compilation of Utica shale activities.
Landman Report Card, a site that looks at companies involved in gas and oil leases.FracFocus, a compilation of chemicals used in fracking individual wells as reported voluntarily by some drillers.
Chesapeake Energy Corp,the Oklahoma-based firm is the No. 1 driller in Ohio.
Rig Count Interactive Map by Baker Hughes, an energy services company.
Shale Sheet Fracking, a Youngstown Vindicator blog.
National Geographic's The Great Shale Rush.
The Ohio Environmental Council, a statewide eco-group based in Columbus.
Earthjustice, a national eco-group.
People's Oil and Gas Collaborative-Ohio, a grass-roots group in Northeast Ohio.
Concerned Citizens of Medina County, a grass-roots group.
No Frack Ohio, a Columbus-based grass-roots group.
Fracking: Gas Drilling's Environmental Threat by ProPublica, an online journalism site.
Pipeline, blog from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Marcellus shale drilling.
Allegheny Front, environmental public radio for Western Pennsylvania.
Six Ohio Utica shale tidbits
A few Utica shale notes that did not make it into the Jan. 1 story on Utica shale development in Ohio in 2012-2013:
1. Mike McCormac of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources says the state doesn’t like the Utica label that has been applied to the black-colored shale rock that is 400 million years old.
A more accurate description is the Utica-Point Pleasant Interval, where those two shales abut, with the Point Pleasant immediately below the Utica, he said.
That is where the liquids are most prevalent and that is what the drillers are seeking: a two-level rock layer that is from 87 to 350 feet thick, he said..
2. The Utica is also the only onshore oil play east of the Mississippi River.
The Marcellus shale in Pennsylvania is mostly dry natural gas.
In other states, much of the Utica shale is deeper, and that makes the shallower and more-accessible Ohio Utica shale on the fringes of the rock formation more attractive to drillers.
3. In 2012, the drilling companies have reduced the time and costs associated with drilling each Utica well.
4. Production gradually declines in wells, and the energy companies are unsure how big of a decline they will find in the Utica shale.
5. Investors are still cautious about the Utica shale. That is largely due to the fact that there is very little solid data for how productive the Ohio wells might be.
6. Companies are also adding additional wells next to existing wells.
Multiple wells can be housed on one well pad very close to other wells. The wells are routed to different areas of the underground shale in northwest-southeast alignments.
