Trumbull

Elected officials in Trumbull County, OH, voted unanimously Wednesday in favor of a resolution asking Gov. John Kasich to declare a moratorium on drilling any new wastewater injection wells in the county.

Halcon Resources Corp. will begin seismic testing to find Utica Shale oil and gas deposits in six townships of Mahoning County, OH, after local officials there approved a one-year road use maintenance agreement with the company.

A total of 205 horizontal wells were drilled in Ohio’s Utica Shale through Jan. 5, and seven more were drilled in the state’s portion of the Marcellus Shale , according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR).

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.

Representatives from a unit of BP plc began signing agreements with landowners in Trumbull County, OH, as the company readies to begin exploring its Utica/Point Pleasant Shale leasehold in 2013. In March BP completed an agreement with the Associated Landowners of the Ohio Valley to lease close to 84,000 acres in an unexplored area of the county, which is in the northeastern part of the state (see Shale Daily, March 28). With the agreements now in place, BP is executing individual terms with landowners, which may take up to six months. BP’s Ohio shale purchase moved it into ninth place among Utica/Point Pleasant leaseholders, according to data compiled from company reports by NGI’s Shale Daily. The top leaseholder is Chesapeake Energy Corp., which has an estimated 1.2 million net acres, followed by EnerVest and EV Energy Partners, which together lease an estimated 760,000 net acres. Chevron Corp. follows with 600,000 net acres.