Utica Shale, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky
By Richard Nyahay, Nyahay Geosciences, LLC, New York, USA
The Utica Shale should be more aptly named the Point Pleasant Play. Most of the production is coming from the lower organic rich section Point Pleasant interval a lateral equivalent of the upper portion of the Trenton Limestone. The Point Pleasant play extends from eastern Ohio east to the southern tier in New York, where the play was discovered in 2007, to southwestern Pennsylvania and into the pan handle of West Virginia.
The Point Pleasant play has shown a steady increase of production of oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids in Ohio since coming online in 2011. Production from gas wells with prolific IP’s near the pan handle of West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania is proving the play is living up to it’s potential as a Giant underneath the Marcellus above.
The Point Pleasant Play thickens to the southeast up to 300 feet in Ohio, up to 600 feet in Pennsylvania. Thermal maturity can be divided into the oil window, wet gas window, and dry gas zone which increases in maturity to the east and to southeast direction.
TOC is highest in the organic rich Point Pleasant interval ranging from 3% to 12%. The TOC increases to the east and to the southeast. This same interval is an organic rich calcareous shale with a high carbonate content making it a good candidate for hydraulic fracturing.
Longer laterals, short stages and shut in rest periods are the basic completion concept. The Purple Hayes 1H drilled in 2016 in Guernsey County was the longest drilled lateral in the United States with a lateral length of 18,544 feet. It had an initial production rate of 5MMcf/d and 1,200bbl/d while being choked back. With the completion of this well Eclipse Resources Corp proved it could drill a superlateral in shorter amount of time and for less money than the 6500 ft. laterals it drilled earlier.
The Gulfport cross sections show the stratigraphy and petrophyical properties of the Point Pleasant in Southeast Ohio are uniform and are structurally quiet. This would speak to the success Eclipse Resource Corporation is having with its superlateral the Purple Hayes 1H. Eclipse Resources corporation believes it could drill a 22,000 foot lateral well effectively.
Steering a well is equally important in this interval because differences in amplitude will result in variable economics that could be a result of different lateral permeability.
A recent analysis by Cuaresma and Martin in 2019 stated “amount of water used during hydraulic fracturing in Ohio has the largest effect on the estimated ultimate recovery and the amount of sand used as a fracture proppant in Pennsylvania and West Virginia a numerically large effect on the estimated ultimate recovery, whereas the orientation (azimuth) of the wellbore appears to have an insignificant effect”.
A new USGS, 2019 study updated predicted recoverable resources at 117.2 TCF natural gas (up from 38 TCF, 1,814 MMBO (up from 940 MMBO), 985MMB natural gas liquids (up from 208MMB). This seems feasible because of the steady increase of activity in Pennsylvania (approximately 200 wells) and in West Virginia.
Ohio as of 6/25/2021 has permitted 3450 wells, drilled 2921 wells with 2700 producing wells (ODNR, 2021). In Pennsylvania, production is led by Tioga, Potter and Elk counties respectively (PA DEP, 2019). In West Virginia, production is led by Marshall and Tyler counties (WVGES, 2019).