Trempealeau Formation, Ohio

Now it's the Trempealeau ("the Tramp" for those in the play), 150 miles from Ohio's Utica shale drilling activity. Bizjournals is reporting:

Houston-based EOR Technology LLC plans to drill the well about 45 miles north of Columbus.

EOR typically stands for enhanced oil recovery, which includes techniques to extract oil after much of it has already been drained.

Central Ohio has always been home to drilling, but with traditional vertically drilled wells. Part of the reason the Utica shale in eastern Ohio is coveted by drilling companies is because it's now economically accessible to get the oil and gas in it via horizontal drilling and hydraulically fracturing, or fracking.

Now that practice is coming to Morrow County, Central Ohio, about 150 miles from most Utica shale drilling activity in the state.

The drilling permit is for 3,200 feet, a depth too shallow to tap the Utica shale, as Marcellus Drilling News points out. Instead, it's the Trempealeau formation, state records show, whose oil was coveted in the 1960s.

Haven't heard of "the Tramp?" Neither had I. Here's an abstract of a 1965 paper on same:

Concentrated in central Ohio's Morrow County, the Trempealeau oil play has proven to be the most prolific in the state's recent history.

Unrestricted producing rates and the relatively shallow depth of 3,000 ft have created an added incentive to finding the scattered Cambrian erosional remnants that comprise the productive areas.

Approximately 413 wells were completed in 1964 and Trempealeau production from the Morrow pool during the year was almost 11 million bbl. [Equivalent to 10 days in the Bakken.]

The producing reservoirs are vugular dolomite with evidence of vertical fracturing.

Average core properties include 7.8 per cent porosity and 49 md permeability. Average per well recovery from an analysis of 75 wells is 68,000 bbl, while individual well recoveries have ranged up to 500,000 bbl.

Primary recoveries from the better areas are predicted at around 30 per cent of the oil in place, a particularly high figure considering these are predominantly solution gas drive reservoirs.

Secondary recovery will be a challenge to operators since conventional methods do not appear favorable in view of current data. This paper presents a summary of Trempealeau reservoir performance, particularly the Ashland development in the Morrow field.

So, while California does all it can to kill its in-state oil and gas industry, the rest of the world drills on. Good for you, Ohio. Wishing you "continued good luck." Rumor has it that President Obama will be in Ohio to check out the new Trempealeau well.