Ohio's Utica Shale Continues to Excite Me

It's been sometime since I've posted on the Utica Shale, or much else for that matter. Regular followers of this blog know that I consider Ohio's Utica Shale and the energy it will produce as the most significant development in Ohio since the Erie Canal.
Fracking phobia: While Matt Damon is scaring the hell out of everyone with his preposterous Promised Land flick (it's not just an acting gig-he is a co writer) Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper of Colorado has testified before the senate that he has drunk fracking fluid. The former Denver mayor told a Senate committee that he actually drank a glass of fracking fluid produced by oilfield services giant Halliburton. The fluid is made entirely “of ingredients sourced from the food industry".
“You can drink it. We did drink it around the table, almost ritual like, in a funny way,” he told the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. “It was a demonstration. … they’ve invested millions of dollars in what is a benign fluid in every sense.”
Take that Matt!
A $100,000 per day well in Belmont County gives Gulfport Energy something to shout about.
The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register newspaper reports: "The positives keep coming for Gulfport Energy's Utica Shale operations, as the Stutzman well in southwestern Belmont County could be producing about $100,000 worth of revenue per day. The well is expected to produce almost 22,000 barrel of oil equivalent per day." That's 21 million cubic feet per day of natural gas, in addition to the 945 barrels per day of ethane, propane, butane and other liquids."
And it pumps 7 days a week!
The Utica holds almost 1 billion barrels of oil. The U.S. Geological Survey released its first reserves estimate for the Utica Shale last week.

The federal agency estimates that the Utica holds about 38 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas and 940 million barrels of oil. Initial estimate are usually low. Aside from being a rather sedate agency the U.S. Geological Survey must base its projections on known reserves. As drilling progresses and more reserves are discovered, estimates will increase.