Friday, February 27, 2015
and Kalea Hall
YOUNGSTOWN
Columbiana County is the 2014 winner for Mahoning Valley oil and natural gas production.
The county produced 21.3 billion cubic feet of natural gas and 172,388 barrels of oil in four quarters last year, according to data released by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
Columbiana County’s figures show a dramatic jump from 2013 when more than 3 billion cubic feet of natural gas and 80,411 barrels of oil were produced. The county produced 9.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas and 76,485 barrels of oil in just the fourth quarter of 2014.
ODNR this week provided the final quarter of production results for the Utica and Marcellus shale plays in the state.
Mahoning County’s fourth-quarter data show 5,006 barrels of oil and 1.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas produced. Trumbull County produced 5,019 barrels of oil and 244 million cubic feet of natural gas for that quarter.
The four-quarter results added together show Mahoning County produced 26,929 barrels of oil in 2014 compared with 3,485 barrels in 2013. The county also produced more than 4 billion cubic feet of natural gas in 2014 compared with 714 million cubic feet in 2013.
In 2014, Trumbull County produced 40,688 barrels of oil and 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas. In 2013, Trumbull produced 21,692 barrels of oil and 195 million cubic feet of natural gas.
ODNR’s data also show an increase from quarter to quarter in Columbiana County wells. The county’s wells in the first quarter are listed at 31, and by the fourth quarter, 53 wells were listed. Of these, in the first quarter there were 23 wells that produced, and in the fourth quarter there were 47 wells with production results.
In the fourth quarter of 2014, there were 828 horizontal shale wells throughout Ohio with 779 wells with production results. Altogether, 3.6 million barrels of oil and 164 billion cubic feet of natural gas were produced in the quarter.
Statewide, oil increased by more than 545,000 barrels and gas by more than 33 billion cubic feet compared with the third quarter of 2014. For 2014, Ohio produced nearly 11 million barrels of oil compared with 3.6 billion barrels in 2013. Ohio also produced 452 billion cubic feet of natural gas last year compared with 100 billion cubic feet in 2013.
“The fourth-quarter production results signify that Ohio’s Utica shale development shows great potential for helping Ohio to secure its energy needs,” said Shawn Bennett, executive vice president for the Ohio Oil and Gas Association.
Shale production is expected to decrease in 2015 due to low prices for oil and natural gas, analysts say.
“We have already seen a 40 percent reduction in rig count since December due to low commodity prices,” Bennett said.
Oil prices have dropped since June when the price was above a $100 a barrel. On Thursday evening, oil prices hovered between $48 and $61, according to Bloomberg Business.
PNC economist Mekael Teshome said, on a national scale, oil prices are now stabilizing as some producers are forced out of the market.
Teshome forecasts that oil prices will moderately increase to above $60 a barrel by the fourth quarter of 2015. However, it’s a different story for Ohio’s Utica shale play where producers are used to the low prices for natural gas, which is more predominant in the Utica, Teshome said.
“The free fall [of oil prices] has ended,” he said.