Halcon's test wells miss expectations

May 28, 2013 at 7:06p.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Early test results from an underdeveloped portion of the Utica Shale play in Mercer and Venango counties in Western Pennsylvania did little to impress energy analysts when they were first released last week by Halcon Resources Corp.

The news comes less than one week after the broader market reacted in a lukewarm fashion to production results on the Ohio side, where the Ohio Department of Natural Resources released numbers that, for now, have quelled the widely held belief that the Utica is rich in wet gas and oil.

In a Utica operational update released last Thursday, Halcon reported its Phillips 1H well in Mercer County tested at a peak rate of 730 barrels of oil equivalent per day, while its Allam 1H well in Venango County tested at a peak rate of 1,652 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

Halcon announced in March that it would begin work on between 20 and 25 production wells across its 131,000 acres of leasehold in the Utica Shale this year. Thursday’s early test results were important, as the company has sought to explore its acreage in the northern portion of the play where little activity has occurred — and little test results have been released.

At the same time, a major land grab appears to be underway in Mercer County, where for months oil and gas companies have been buying up property at a steady pace.

From Trumbull County in Ohio to Mercer County in Pennsylvania, experts have bet on reservoir maps that show a window of rich oil and wet gas, which contains more energy and fetches a higher price on the market.