Belmont

This summer, researchers from Yale University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are testing household drinking water samples and interviewing around 200 Ohio households to study the effects of oil and natural gas activities in the Appalachian Basin.

Crews were still working Tuesday on a plan to cap a Utica Shale well that XTO Energy Inc. and its contractors lost control of last Thursday in Ohio’s Belmont County.

A semi-truck hauling oil and natural gas wastewater through Southeast Ohio left the road and crashed into a field, spilling 5,000 gallons of the fluid into a stream that empties into a drinking water reservoir, state regulators said Thursday.

An analysis of state data shows that just three operators accounted for more than 70% of Ohio’s unconventional oil and gas production in the second quarter.

Pure-play Appalachian operator Rice Energy Inc. continues to scoop up land in Belmont County, OH, where all of its Utica Shale operations are centered, inking a more than $3.4 million deal Tuesday with county commissioners for another 424 gross acres.

Ohio wells produced about 73.3 Bcf of natural gas and 4.9 million bbl of oil in 2011, according to a report released this week by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ (ODNR) Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management.