Posted on 12/09/2013 9:03:05 AM PST by ckilmer
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MORRISTOWN - Deep within Belmont County lurks a "monster" that is producing as much as 28.5 million cubic feet of Utica Shale natural gas per day.
As Gulfport Energy begins selling methane, propane, butane, pentane and oil from the Shugert 1 well here, the driller's partner, MarkWest Energy, is now processing Gulfport gas from the first phase of its processing complex near Cadiz.
"Gulfport's success in the Utica Shale and the commencement of operations at our Cadiz Complex are significant accomplishments in the ongoing Utica Shale development in Eastern Ohio," said Frank Semple, chairman, president and chief executive officer of MarkWest.
"Early results indicate this play is one of the most exciting new areas for natural gas and liquids production in the United States - and given our leading position in the neighboring Marcellus Shale, we are well positioned to support the producers' future development plans in the Utica."
With natural gas and liquids provided by Gulfport Energy's Utica Shale operations, MarkWest Energy has commenced the first phase of operations at its processing complex near Cadiz.
Gulfport's Shugert well produced an average of 28.5 million cubic feet per day of natural gas, in addition to more than 2,900 barrels of liquids per day. These new numbers are slightly higher than those the company reported in October.
Global Hunter Securities - an investment bank focused on energy - is quite impressed with the results from this Belmont County well.
"The Shugert well is a monster and another positive event for Gulfport as the company continues to derisk its Utica acreage," Global Hunter analysts said in a statement regarding the well.
Companies such as Gulfport, Chesapeake Energy, Chevron and XTO Energy are known in the industry as "producers" because these companies sell the gas they pump out of the ground. Because the wet Marcellus and Utica shale gas requires processing before it can go to market, producers send their gas to companies such as Dominion Resources, Caiman Energy or MarkWest for processing and fractionation.
"Our results to date continue to validate our high expectations for the play and, with the commencement of operations at MarkWest's Cadiz Complex, we look forward to maximizing the play's potential," said Jim Palm, chief executive officer of Gulfport.
In natural gas processing, the dry methane part of the gas stream is separated from the wet portions - ethane, butane, propane and pentane. During fractionation, the natural gas liquids and other substances are separated from each other. These separated gas products are then ready for use, with the ethane possibly going to a cracker plant somewhere in North America. MarkWest plans to send ethane from Cadiz to Gulf Coast markets for cracking there.
By the beginning of 2014, MarkWest plans to have 140 miles of gathering pipeline and gas compression to service the 50 wells Gulfport plans to have producing by then.
In the Mahoning Valley, so far two horizontal Utica Shale wells have been permitted in Trumbull County and 15 in Mahoning County. Only three of the Mahoning wells have been drilled, and none are producing, according to reports on file with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
One exploratory well in Milton Township, Mahoning County, permitted May 4, 2011, and drilled by Chesapeake Appalacia LLC produced 758 barrels of oil in 79 days last year. However, the well now is on "inactive status" while the company awaits completion of a sales line, according to information provided to the ODNR.
In Mahoning County two other wells have been drilled or are in the drilling stage. No drilling has yet commenced in Trumbull County.
the initial production rates on this one are twice that of the one in Colorado we talked about earlier.
Looks like there’s a couple more like this coming online.
These are likely the reason production rates in the marcellus/utica formations are going up so big without the rig count going up. The guys are finding the sweet spots with a deal of efficiency and are finding 16 ways to sunday to get the most out of them.
awesome. Obama’s EPA arriving on site to shut it down in 5....4......3.....2......
Cracker plant?!?!?!!?
That’s racist!
29 mmcf is approximately equivalent to 5300 barrels/day of crude oil.
How much gas could a cracker plant crack if a cracker plant could crack gas?
“Jimmy crack gas and I don’t care.” Burl Ives
Glorgau, it’s confession time. You know when Burl Ives came onto those Christmas specials and looked right into the camera?
I was as scared as a little girl in a haunted house ... the horror.
The yields have been beyond expectations since day one for Marcellus/Utica shale.
This “truth” is driving the anti-hydrocarbon liberals mad!
Looking at the big picture, they still have not even started to tap the shale in New York State, so just imagine the amount of energy under our feet just waiting to be extracted.
This threatens green energy and could doom it forever, which is the reason liberals need to lie about hydraulic fracturing.
And some lucky landowner gets 15-20 percent of that. If it’s 20 percent, that would be over $24,000 PER DAY at current natural gas prices. With horizontal drilling, a number of landowners may be sharing that pot. Still, nice non-work if you can get it!
I’m so glad I’m not a liberal. If I was, I’d have to be bothered by such things. As it is, I can just say “the Universe isn’t fair, and never will be.”
In any case, if I were playing the odds, I would bet a rural Ohio landowner would make wiser use of a sudden windfall than an urban homeless man or a Harvard professor or a left-wing politician. Sure, fools exist everywhere, but just playing the odds here.
We used to build still columns for natural gas plants in NW New Mexico.
If I was building a still column and sending it to a cracker plant.....I might have to notify the revenooers! (unless I get more orders for stills, er still columns!)
I look at it this way.
The USA has been decapitalized since 1970 when USA oil production peaked and imports started in a big way. In the last decade the USA has been shipping 500 billion dollars annually overseas to many countries that hate us.
We are in the initial years of a massive recapitalization of the USA. But it will be a decades long process
An immense amount of wealth is being poured into the USA by the oil companies who used to put most of their capital into overseas ventures. Now most of their capex is going to the USA.
You can bet that much of the extra dough that people in the country are getting will find its way into the greater economy.
Looking at the big picture, they still have not even started to tap the shale in New York State, so just imagine the amount of energy under our feet just waiting to be extracted.
..........
I think that New York state will legalize fracking eventually but likely somewhere in the “better late than never” zone.
Like when NY State gets a republican governor.
29 mmcf is approximately equivalent to 5300 barrels/day of crude oil.
........
that’s a lot of hydrocarbon by any measure. Likely the flow rates will decline sharply. But even when they do—these wells will still be profitable.
HINT: You don't run pipelines to wells that are going to decline rapidly.
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