NORTH CANTON, Ohio -- Gas and oil producers are beginning to put the "boom" in Ohio's shale development.
The 352 horizontal shale wells working in Ohio's eastern counties produced 100 billion cubic feet of natural gas and nearly 3.7 million barrels of oil in 2013, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources said on Wednesday at a special "state of the play" news conference at Stark State College, which offers an extensive oil and gas education and training program.
ODNR analysts estimated total gas and oil production numbers, including conventional vertical wells, amounted to 171 billion cubic feet of gas and 8 million barrels of oil in 2013.
Compared to 2012 when only 85 shale wells were producing, gas production increased by 97 percent and oil production by 62 percent, according to state calculations.
The department also released production data for the first quarter of 2014.
A total of 418 wells reported production of 67 billion cubic feet of gas and 1.9 million barrels of oil during the first three months of this year.
"We believe this is one of the most important times in our history," said Stark State President Para Jones in introductory remarks. "We all know that natural gas and natural resources have been a part of Ohio history forever." Ohio's first oil and gas well was drilled in 1860.
Compared to 2012 when only 85 shale wells were producing, gas production increased by 97 percent and oil production by 62 percent, according to state calculations.
But the year-over-year increases are about more than just the number of wells, said Rick Simmers, oil and gas chief at ODNR.
"As this play begins to mature, the companies are learning how to drill the wells and they are drilling them quicker and safer," he said. "But they are also learning how to fine tune the completion, in other words how they draw the oil and gas out of the well effectively and economically. As those techniques improve, the production of gas an oil out of the wells will increase."
Year-over-year increase in natural gas production was the largest in Ohio history, while the total production in 2013 was the fourth highest in the state's history.
Simmers noted that much of Ohio's Utica shale is rich with a number of gases, including ethane and propane, that make it far more valuable than ordinary methane, the gas most widely used as a heating fuel.
Simmers said the production ramped up only after the industry was able to build a pipeline system and processing plants to separate the gases and oil mixed in gas from some of the wells.
ODNR also released production data for the first quarter of 2014. A total of 418 wells reported production of 1.9 million barrels of oil and 67 billion cubic feet of gas.
ODNR Director James Zehringer, quoting statistics from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, said Ohio homes used an average of 280 billion cubic feet of gas over each of the last five years for winter heating.
Today, about half of that gas comes from wells in the state, he said.
"Not only are we becoming more energy independent as a nation, we are becoming more energy independent as a state," he said.
The Ohio Department of Commerce, the Ohio EPA and Jobs Ohio also participated in the conference.
David Mustine, head of Jobs Ohio, noted that building the pipelines and processing plants was critical to increasing production. He listed about half dozen "midstream" companies involving in spending $6 billion in new processing plants and pipelines in just the last 24 months.
Mustine said there are now about 40 manufacturing
in Ohio, making parts used in drilling and to move the gas and oil. "Some of their products are shipped all around the world," he said.
The state has continued to talk to petro-chemical companies (such as Shell Chemical, which is again considering building a cracker in Beaver County, Pa) to convince one of them to build an ethane "cracker" here at a cost of several billion dollars.
A cracker, essentially a refinery, would process or "crack" ethane, creating ethylene, the basic, building block molecule used by the plastic and polymer industries, Mustine said.
Mustine singled out Marathon Oil for its commitment to build a special "splitter" at its Canton refinery to enable it to refiner the light oil, called condensate, flowing from some of the Ohio shale wells.
Ohio EPA director Craig Butler and State Fire Marshal Larry Flowers stressed that the state's agencies work as a team to regulate the industry.