1Q Valley oil, gas production down year over year

By Kalea Hall | June 10, 2017 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Mahoning Valley’s wells produced fewer barrels of oil and cubic feet of natural gas year-over-year during the first quarter.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources on Friday released the first-quarter oil and gas production totals for every county in the state, and The Vindicator broke down the report.

All three counties produced 22,877 barrels of oil in the first quarter of 2017, down from 32,247 barrels produced in the first quarter of 2016.

Natural-gas production across the three counties was 6.7 billion cubic feet in the first quarter of 2017, down from the 10.8 billion cubic feet produced last year.

Columbiana County produced the most oil and gas in the Valley, with 18,070 barrels of oil and 6 billion cubic feet of natural gas. But the county’s production levels were down from last year’s first-quarter report.

Mahoning County produced 3,653 barrels of oil and 577 million cubic feet of natural gas. The county’s oil production was slightly up over last year, while natural-gas production was down.

Trumbull County produced 1,154 barrels of oil and 106 million cubic feet of natural gas. The county’s natural-gas production was up from last year, but it’s oil production was down.

The state’s horizontal wells produced more natural gas during the first quarter of 2017 than in the first quarter of 2016, but oil production was down.

ODNR reported natural-gas production of 371 billion cubic feet, up from 329 billion cubic feet reported in the first quarter of 2016, and oil production for this year’s first quarter was 3.9 million barrels, down from 5.4 million reported last year.

In total, there were 1,613 horizontal shale wells, 1,560 of which reported oil and natural-gas production during the first quarter of 2017. In the first quarter of 2016, there were 1,351 horizontal shale wells, 1,302 of which reported oil and gas production.

During the first quarter of 2017, the average amount of oil produced was 2,503 barrels; the average amount of natural gas produced was 238,411 million cubic feet; and the average number of first-quarter days in production was 86.