Marathon Petroleum Corp. and Harvest Pipeline Company signed a letter of intent on Sept. 27, agreeing to jointly develop infrastructure that will facilitate transportation of hydrocarbon liquids production from the Utica Shale in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania.

The drilling and oilfield services industry should be pleased with the first assessment of oil and gas reserves in the Utica Shale play by the US Geological Survey, which indicates that extraction of the reserves would take approximately 110,000 wells in the gas window and another 17,500 wells in the oil window.

The Utica Shale contains about 38 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered, technically recoverable natural gas (at the mean estimate) according to the first assessment of this continuous (unconventional) natural gas accumulation by the US Geological Survey. 

According to a recent report from IHS, although it is still premature to conclude that the Utica/Point Pleasant Shale play in Ohio and western Pennsylvania will be as productive as the Eagle Ford Shale in Texas, the Utica is in many ways analogous to the Eagle Ford and early drilling results are encouraging.

Norse Energy Corp. has engaged Albrecht & Associates Inc. to represent the company in the sale of Marcellus and Utica prospective acreage in New York.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. has entered into multiple agreements to sell the vast majority of its Permian properties, substantially all of its midstream assets and certain noncore leasehold for total net cash proceeds of approximately $6.9 billion.

DTE Energy, Enbridge Inc., and Spectra Energy Corp. have executed a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly develop the NEXUS Gas Transmission system to move growing supplies of Ohio Utica shale gas to markets in the US Midwest, including Ohio and Michigan, and Ontario, Canada.

With natural gas production in the Utica Shale predicted to reach at least 1.2 bcf/d by the end of 2014 and crude oil production expected to hit 155 Mb/d or higher by 2016, transportation constraints and competition for processing capacity take center stage in the Northeast.

While mergers and acquisitions deal value in the US oil and gas industry over the past two years had primarily been driven by shale transactions in the upstream sector, deals in the second quarter of 2012 evolved toward midstream deals, particularly gathering and processing targets, according to PwC US.

Smart Sand and Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. have partnered to supply and ship premium, Northern White frac sand to the unconventional oil and gas industry in key North America producing regions.

Caiman Energy II LLC has secured $800 million in equity commitments for the development of midstream infrastructure in Ohio and Pennsylvania’s Utica Shale.

NiSource was recently recognized by US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl for its ongoing investment in pipeline infrastructure modernization and replacement.

Recent production data for Utica Shale wells drilled by Chesapeake Energy may be economic, but the lower than expected condensate/oil mix in the eastern Ohio wells may shift the industry focus westward, noted Global Hunter Securities.

BP (NYSE: BP) has entered the Utica Shale through an agreement to lease roughly 84,000 acres in Trumbull County, Ohio, the company said March 27.