Chesapeake Energy Corp. has achieved strong initial production success in the wet gas and dry gas phases of Utica shale horizontal drilling in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania, the company said Wednesday.
The Oklahoma City-based company said it has drilled 12 horizontal wells in the discovery phase of Utica play and is early in the process of evaluating the oil phase of the play.
The company also said it hit key production milestones and set corporate all-time production records.
Gross operated production reached 6.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent per day, and its net production has exceeded 3.45 billion cubic feet equivalent per day, including about 95,000 barrels per day of liquids.
Chesapeake said by the end of 2012 and 2015, it plans to increase its net liquids production by 50 percent and 150 percent to more than 150,000 barrels per day and more than 250,000 barrels per day, respectively, while maintaining its net natural gas production at current levels.
As recently as 2009, the company said its full-year liquids production averaged only 32,000 barrels per day.
Results from the first four of the company's completed horizontal wells in the wet gas and dry gas phases of the play are:
* The Buell 10-11-5 8H in Harrison County was drilled to a lateral length of 6,418 feet and achieved a peak rate of 9.5 million cubic feet per day of natural gas and 1,425 barrels per day of natural gas liquids and oil liquids, or 3,010 barrels of oil equivalent per day;
* The Mangun 22-15-5 8H in Carroll County was drilled to a lateral length of 6,231 feet and achieved a peak rate of 3.1 million cubic feet per day of natural gas and 1,015 barrels per day of liquids, or 1,530 barrels of oil equivalent per day;
* The Neider 10-14-5 3H in Carroll County was drilled to a lateral length of 4,152 feet and achieved a peak rate of 3.8 million cubic feet per day of natural gas and 980 barrels per day of liquids, or 1,615 barrels of oil equivalent per day; and
* The Thompson 3H in Beaver County, Pa., was drilled to a lateral length of 4,322 feet and achieved a peak rate of 6.4 million cubic feet per day of dry natural gas.
The company said its other eight drilled horizontal wells are completing or waiting on completion.
The production rates assume maximum ethane recovery, the company said. Chesapeake said it is processing the wet natural gas stream from the three Ohio wells at a nearby processing facility where ethane is currently being minimally recovered due to temporary market limitations. The company has multiple projects and initiatives under way to process and market future production of natural gas liquids, including ethane.