Exxon To Drill Its First Utica Well in Belmont County

Rhonda Reda, executive director of the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Association expects to see the current number of 35 drilling rigs working in Ohio to triple in the next five years. In 1980, the oil and gas industry drilled 6,085 wells in Ohio. In 2010, the most recent statistics available, a total of 431 wells, either dry holes or producing ones, were drilled in Ohio. Comparing the number of well drilled in 1980 and now is deceptive. Horizontal drilling allows the driller to drill fewer wells. To get the same yield as one horizontal well 15 to 25 vertical wells would have to be drilled.

In other news Exxon Mobil subsidiary XTO Energy plans to drill its first Ohio Utica Shale well just south of the former Key Ridge Elementary School in Belmont County. Exxon has about 26,000 acres leased in Belmont County and another 26,000 acres in Monroe County.

MarkWest Energy plans to build two processing facilities in Harrison and Monroe Counties. The cost of the projects is about $500,000,000 creating about 700 construction jobs and 40 permanent jobs.