The State of New York issued three permits to Gastem, Inc., to drill vertical wells into the Utica Shale. More information at the Energy Business Review.

“The U.S. Department of Energy announces the release of Modern Shale Gas Development in the United States: A Primer. The Primer provides regulators, policy makers, and the public with an objective source of information on the technology advances and challenges that accompany deep shale gas development.” Quoted from fossil.energy.gov. Download the .pdf

Ziff Energy Group has a press release on their website predicting that unconventional gas plays now active across North America will account for 53% of the continent’s gas production by 2020.

Molopo Australia Limited is making a presentation at the WWCM Quebec Shale Gas Conference. Their Powerpoint Presentation contains interesting maps, data and information about the Utica Shale and Lorraine Shale.

Talisman Energy has a news release about a Utica Shale test in a reentered Trenton-Black River vertical well on the south side of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec. The well flowed 800 mcf/d and the company believes that the Utica Shale is brittle enough to be conducive to fracture stimulation.

There is growing amount of interest in the St. Lawrence Lowlands area of Quebec, Canada. Companies are interested in the Utica Shale on the south side of the St. Lawrence River. More information and map at Stockhouse.com.

New York has seen relatively few problems with the 13,000 natural gas wells that have been drilled in that state since 1963. However, many citizens have an unusual level of concern for the new wells that will be drilled to tap the gas in the Marcellus Shale and Utica Shale. An article in Times Union explores the issues.

Today, New York Governor David Patterson signed legislation that will allow natural gas companies to drill horizontal wells to tap the Marcellus Shale. These wells start at the surface as a vertical well then turn 90 degrees to horizontally through a thin rock unit – penetrating a greater distance of the gas-yielding rock. The immediate use of horizontal drilling will be in rock units such as the Marcellus Shale and Utica Shale. More in an article at NewsDay.com.

The Utica Shale is beneath the Marcellus Shale and exceeds its geographic extent. However, little is known about the potential of the Utica the with new drilling and fracking technologies. Because of its depth and low conventional yield it has been historically ignored as a drilling target in most areas. This document is a treasure trove of information if you are trying to understand the Utica Shale.

Leasing and drilling activities along the New York-Pennsylvania border are focusing mainly on the Marcellus Shale. However, in other parts of New York and Canada specific plays are being made for the Utica Shale which occurs about 600 feet below the Marcellus. More in the WellsvilleDaily.com.

Leasing and successful drilling activities in organic-rich shales started recently in the Utica Shale of Northern New York and Quebec, Canada. More details, including who is drilling, where and budgets can be found in the Globe and Mail.

Penn State is projecting that the Marcellus Shale will produce about 8000 jobs per year and add about $1 billion in dispsable personal income to the Pennsylvania economy each year. More details can be found in an article on the Penn State Live Website.

Forest Oil drilled two vertical test wells into the Utica Shale in the St. Lawrence Lowlands of Quebec, Canada. These wells penetrated the Utica Shale at depths of about 4800 feet and had test production rates of up to one million cubic feet of gas per day. More information in a Reuters article.

USGS Open-File Report 00-496, Thermal maturity patterns (CAI and %Ro) in the Ordovician and Devonian rocks of the Appalachian basin in New York State, by David J. Weary; Robert T. Ryder and Richard Nyahay provides information useful for understanding the thermal maturity of the Utica Shale and other rocks of New York.