Ohio: Magnum Hunter spuds horizontal Utica shale well

Magnum Hunter Resources Corp., Houston, has spudded the vertical pilot hole for the company’s first horizontal Utica shale well in Ohio.

The well is on the four-well Farley pad in northern Washington County along the Noble County line 30 miles south of Cambridge.

A subsidiary, Triad Hunter LLC, is operating the well with 100% working interest. It plans to drill the vertical section, run extensive logs and cores, and then plug back and kick off a lateral of 6,000 ft or more in the Point Pleasant member of Utica. A frac stimulation and testing are planned for mid-2013.

Triad Hunter owns mineral rights on 88,000 gross acres (79,000 net acres) of Utica potential in Ohio and West Virginia, much of which is held by production. Offset well results and industry analysis indicate that about half of the company’s acreage is in the Utica play’s wet gas window.

Triad Hunter has drilled three horizontal wells to the Marcellus shale in Monroe County, Ohio, two of which await fracture stimulation and pipeline hookups by its Eureka Hunter midstream affiliate. Having the opportunity of possessing two significant production horizons at one location is unique in this region, Magnum Hunter said. Log interpretations of the two wells indicate a high liquids content, the company said.