Fracking in the Utica

A couple days ago "Anon 1" recommended listening to a Gulfport Energy webcast concerning their "Darla" wells in the Utica.

It's a long webcast, but fortunately a reporter posted a story -- the short version, as it were: Ohio.com is reporting.

Some data points, first about Gulfport and the Utica:

• Ohio Dept of Natural of Resources estimates: 1.3 to 5.5 billions of of oil (NDIC's estimate of the Bakken: 6 billion bbls of oil); 16 trillion cubic feet of natural gas 
• Gulfport owns rights to drill on 128,000 acres in Ohio
• Gulfport's first 10 Utica wells averaged 3,630 boepd
• Gulfport will accelerate their 2013 drilling program in Utica; drilling as many as 50 gross wells
• capex about $500 million

Now, Gulfport's drilling plan:

will be experimenting with different drilling and fracking methods
will drill two wells per location at most sites
five to seven months from spud to first sale

Gulfport's Darla wells:

just north of the company's strong-producing Wagner wells in Ohio's Harrison County
will drill three (3) wells instead of two (2)
will experiment with pattern of horizontal drilling; kinds of materials used;
the company will use radioactive markers to trace the wells
will also use fiber optic sensors; cost: $600,000/well for this technology

The SeekingAlpha 4Q12 earnings transcript, particularly the Q & A, provides additional background. It sounds a lot like the Bakken, including the cost per well ($10 million). For investors: think sand and ceramics.  There is a fair amount of discussion regarding diluent for Canadian sands heavy oil.