Gastar Exploration Inc.’s second Utica Shale well in West Virginia tested at a peak 48-hour rate of 36.8 MMcf/d, with a 30-day average of 20.2 MMcf/d, roughly in line with the first Utica well it tested in the state last year, the company said.

The Blake U-7H in Marshall County, WV, was drilled to a lateral length of 6,617 feet and completed with 34 hydraulic fracture stages. Gastar also said it used 14.8 million pounds of proppant to complete the well. The company tested the Simms U-5H in Marshall County last year at a 48-hour rate of 29.4 MMcf/d, but with just a 4,447-foot lateral, that well performed better on a per-foot basis, analysts said (see Shale Daily, Sept. 8, 2014).

Gastar said its most recent five-day average for the Blake well was 14.8 MMcf/d on a restricted choke.

While the company planned to complete a series of wells it drilled last year in the Appalachian Basin it has no plans to drill any new Marcellus or Utica shale wells this year, or until gas prices in the region improve (see Shale Daily, Feb. 3). Instead, the company is focusing on its oil-rich assets in the Hunton Limestone play of north-central Oklahoma.