Ohio’s top producing oil and natural gas wells during the third quarter were once again located in a six-county swath in the Southeast part of the state, with the most prolific wells located in Belmont and Monroe counties.

Overall, the state’s top-50 wells during the third quarter averaged 13.2 MMcfe/d of production across 12 counties in Eastern Ohio, according to data compiled by Topeka Capital Markets. That’s up 9% from the 2Q2015 average of 12.1 MMcfe/d. The state’s best overall well during the quarter, Gulfport Energy Corp.’s Jones well in Monroe County, produced 28.7 MMcfe/d over a 27-day period.

Antero Resources Corp.’s Red Hill Farm well in Noble County produced 48,733 bbl of oil to finish the third quarter as the state’s top-producing oil well. The Utica is primarily a dry gas play and just four counties produced a significant amount of oil during the period: 1.7 million bbl of production were reported from Harrison County; 1.4 million bbl from Carroll County; 1.3 million bbl from Guernsey, and 964,402 bbl from Noble County, according to ODNR data released last week. Other counties produced far less than 1 million bbl each.

The state’s best natural gas well during the period belonged to Rice Energy Inc. Its Mohawk 8H well in Belmont County produced 1.8 Bcf of natural gas during the third quarter. Belmont was also the state’s leading natural gas producing county, where 76.5 Bcf was reported. It was followed by 52.5 Bcf in Carroll County and 39.7 Bcf in Monroe County to round out the top three producing counties.

ODNR said unconventional production again climbed higher in the third quarter, driven primarily by the Utica Shale. The state’s horizontal shale wells produced nearly 5.7 million bbl of oil during the period, while natural gas production increased to 245.7 Bcf (see Shale Daily, Dec. 3) That’s up from the year-ago period when shale wells in the state produced a little more than 3 million bbl of oil and 132 Bcf of natural gas.

Data shows that Ohio’s top-10 natural gas wells were all located in Belmont County. Eight of those belonged to Rice and two to Ascent Resources LLC. Ascent was also operating five of the top-10 oil wells, while Antero and Chesapeake Energy Corp. were each operating two of those wells. Another belonged to Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc.

Carroll County was once again home to the most wells; it had 391, followed by Harrison County, which had 210 and Belmont County, where 106 shale wells were reported for the period.