“A year ago we couldn’t say the NGL window would work; we couldn’t say that the Utica would work. There were a lot of questions,” said John Walker, president and chief executive of EnerVest Ltd., speaking at Hart Energy’s recent DUG East Conference.

“We’ve made a lot of progress. This year, we can comfortably say the NGL window is going to work.”

Furthermore, with completion techniques being significantly improved, wells are getting better and better.

“Companies are making terrific wells, particularly in the south,” said Walker.

By any industry measure, the Utica is in the early stages of development, said Walker. The Barnett shale in North Texas has produced commercially for at least 10 years. To date, more than 16,000 wells have been drilled in the Barnett and the reservoir has made nearly 11 trillion cubic feet (Tcf). In contrast, across the Utica play, 438 wells have been permitted and 173 wells have spudded, and total production is less than 10 Bcf. However, the resource potential of the Utica is outstanding, said Walker. The Barnett is estimated to contain 20 Tcf of resource potential, and the Utica is half again as large as that, at some 30 Tcf.

EnerVest holds 711,000 net acres in Ohio, and 325,000 of those acres are in a joint venture with Chesapeake Energy Corp. Out of 22 rigs working the play, the partners run 13.

The oil window remains a puzzle. But EnerVest has had a well flow at the rate of 400 bbl. of oil per day, and Walker said he expects the technology to evolve to unlock commercial production. “I suspect in Ohio in the oil window, as we develop the right completion technique, we’ll have oil wells flowing at a good rate.”

The midstream infrastructure is critical in the Utica, noted Walker. A flurry of new processing plants is proposed and under construction, which will help operators immensely. Line reversals, new crackers and export of ethane all provide “We’ve made a lot of progress. This year we can comfortably say the NGL window is going to work.” –John Walker, president and chief executive of EnerVest Ltd. encouragement to producers. The company is involved with Cardinal Gas Services in a venture to gather low-pressure wet gas from the joint venture’s wells and deliver that gas to the Utica East Ohio Kensington gas plant. EnerVest also has an interest in M3 Midstream LLC’s Utica East Ohio system. That offers high-pressure, rich-gas gathering, wet-gas processing, fractionation, pipeline and rail connections. “There’s a lot of work and a lot of money being spent on the midstream,” said Walker.

Currently, EnerVest has a good chunk of its Utica holdings on the market. The play is very early in its life cycle, and so is not appropriate for the company’s business strategy. EnerVest is a private-equity business, and its subsidiary EV Energy Partners is a publicly traded MLP. As such, late-stage assets in such mature plays as the Barnett and Fayetteville shales are its sweet spot.

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