An Overview of Development of the Utica-Point Pleasant Play

Abstract

The combination of the Ordovician Utica and Devonian Marcellus Shale plays has made eastern Ohio, northern West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania one of the hottest areas in the developing U.S. resource play scene. Range Resources drilled the first Marcellus Shale well (the Renz #1) in 2004. Once the Marcellus play took off in earnest, geologists familiar with the local data began focusing on the potential of the Utica Shale and Point Pleasant Formation interval, another proven source rock interval. Range Resources also drilled the first horizontal Utica well ((the Lloyd #1 in Beaver County, Pennsylvania) in March 2010. Late in 2010 Marquette Exploration drilled three vertical tests in the Point Pleasant Formation in southeast Ohio. Chesapeake Energy (then operating under the name Ohio Buckeye Energy) completed the Buell #8H in March 2011 and placed it into production June14, 2011 becoming the first horizontal completion in the Point Pleasant in Ohio. In late September 2011, Chesapeake issued a press release proclaiming the production from the Buell #8H (9.5 MMCF and 1,425 bbls liquids) and three other “Utica” discoveries thus igniting huge interest in the play across the oil and gas industry.

Over the next four years the geographic focus of the Utica-Point Pleasant play shifted a few times as operators tested the limits of the geology in different areas. Southeast Ohio (Belmont, Monroe and Noble Counties) wells kept finding larger and larger initial production, then wells in southwest Pennsylvania and the panhandle of West Virginia came roaring in with even larger numbers. In July 2015 EQT announced initial production of 72.9 MMCF from their Scotts Run well in Greene County, Pennsylvania! Meanwhile, in the summer of 2014 Shell Appalachia announced very good results (11.2 and 26.5 MMCF) from initial Utica wells in Tioga County, Pennsylvania, potentially extending the play much farther to the northeast.

This paper will provide a brief look at this developmental history, some of the challenges which have faced the operators, and some differences in the geology across the producing region.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90258 © 2016 AAPG Eastern Section Meeting, Lexington, Kentucky, September 25-27, 2016