Despite fierce competition, Gulfport Energy Corp. CEO Jim Palm said his company has managed to acquire additional acreage in the Utica Shale as it looks to determine type curves, well spacing and how long it should wait before bringing new wells into production.

During a question-and-answer session with analysts and reporters at Hart Energy’s DUG East Conference in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, Palm said the company added 3,000 gross acres — for a grand total of 128,000 gross acres — in the Utica. He characterized the addition as “bolt-on” acreage.

“We’re still taking up some acreage, but most of [the oil and natural gas companies] have got what we’re going to get,” Palm said. “There is just so much competition now.”

Palm didn’t say what the company’s Utica position is in terms of net acreage, but it was previously about 62,500 acres. In October the company held about 14 permits to drill in Ohio, with plans to drill 200 wells over the next four years (see Shale Daily, Oct. 15). Last week during an earnings conference call Palm said the Utica continues to be the Oklahoma City-based operator’s “primary focus area” (see Shale Daily, Nov. 12).

“We’ve got 200 wells to drill, primary wells to hold acreage,” Palm told attendees Wednesday. “We need to figure out how close we can put these wells to maximize the reserves, maximize the value of our company and maximize the value to our shareholders. Our plan is to get [our wells] as tight as we can, then back off that when we find out what’s appropriate.”

One of Gulfport’s newest wells is the Boy Scout 1-33H, located in Harrison County, OH.

“On the Boy Scout, the first well we drilled was to the north,” Palm said, adding that its lateral was establishing the northern limit of a type curve. “We had originally drawn our plans with three laterals going north and three going south, each 1,000 feet apart, off of that one pad. That well will go on this next month, and we’ll start developing a type curve on that well. Subsequently, we drilled one [lateral] to the south, and we’re getting ready to start fracking that…If we rest it for a couple months, it will go on at the end of January.”

Palm added that the company is planning to return to the Boy Scout wellpad with a rig over the winter to drill three new wells, with laterals 400, 600 and 800 feet away from the existing south lateral as it tries to measure interference.

“If we start drilling wells in January, February and March, with a two-month rest they won’t come on until June or July,” Palm said. “So we’ll already have two type curves established. We’ll start looking for interference between the wells. Our goal is to keep drilling closer and closer together until we can demonstrate interference.”

Then there was the question of how long a new well should be shut in before being placed into production.

“There’s something to the resting, but I have a feeling that 30 days may be good enough in most places. There definitely is an improvement when you shut the wells in for awhile,” Palm said, citing Antero Resources’ Miley 5H well in Noble County’s Seneca Township. “Look at Antero just south of us on their Miley well. They fracked it, drilled the plugs and tested. They got 1,300 b/d [of oil] and 10 MMcf/d [of natural gas] immediately after the frack. If they had shut it in for a month, would they have had 2,000 b/d and 100 MMcf/d instead? I don’t know the answer.

“As we move south, the rocks are going to change, and as you move west it’s going to get oilier. There are going to be some changes. It won’t be the same on a gas well as it will on an oil well. We haven’t really drilled anything out of the wet gas window. Even the gas wells benefit from a resting period.”

Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s Kenneth Buell-8H well in Harrison County, OH, which was drilled last year, initially produced more than 1.5 Bcf over 198 production days in 2011, or 7.7 MMcf/d, and had an overall production rate that was estimated at 1,350 boe/d (see Shale Daily, April 3; Sept. 29, 2011). By itself the Buell well accounted for roughly 2% of Ohio’s total gas produced in 2011. Today, the Buell is producing on average of 9.5 MMcf/d and 1,425 b/d of natural gas liquids (NGL), or an estimated 3,012 boe/d, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

“That was the first time any of us got this inclination,” Palm said. “I think the first IP [initial production] that Chesapeake filed when they did the Buell well was 78 b/d of oil and 2.5 MMcf/d [of natural gas]. By the time they…got a real test on it, they came up with 9.5 MMcf/d and 1,400 bbl of liquids a day. You kind of wonder what in the world is going on? Maybe they just didn’t want to report a high IP because we were all out there competing for acreage.”