It’s great to be on top, especially when you’re the Upper Devonian Shale, the uppermost shale layer in the Appalachian Basin. What lends the Upper Devonian its allure? It sits on top of the proven Marcellus Shale — which sits on top of the Utica Shale.
This triple play currently shows the most promise in parts of West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Exploration companies drilling in the right location for the Marcellus or Utica can continue to employ horizontal drilling into all three shales using the same infrastructure and drill lease.
Five companies have currently been drilling into the Upper Devonian. Range Resources piloted the exploration, followed by Rex Energy Corp., Consol Energy, EQT Corporation and Chesapeake Energy.
Triple threat
Matt Pitzarella, director, corporate communications, with Range Resources notes that the triple staked basin is already having a significant affect on gas and oil support services companies.
“If people weren’t already talking about the Marcellus, they’d be talking about the Upper Devonian,” he says. “We drilled the first horizontal well in the Upper Devonian in 2009 and it’s got the most prolific shale play in the country right beneath it. Any time you drill the Marcellus, you’re drilling through the Upper Devonian and petro scientists and engineers are collecting a lot of geologic data for the future. In the areas where the Marcellus is super rich and demonstrating wet gas qualities, the Upper Devonian is trending the same way.”
Pitzarella says that while drilling companies rushed to develop Utica and Marcellus, they’re taking more of a wait-and-see approach with the Upper Devonian, which will wait patiently to deliver potential payloads.
“The beauty for drilling companies is the future efficiencies to be found in accessing the Upper Devonian from the same well pads and the infrastructure we use for the Marcellus and the Utica as we drill more laterals,” he says. “We’re confident that the activity here will take many generations to develop.”
That longer-term exploitation of the triple play is already having an effect on gas and oil contracting businesses.
Long-term stability
“There’s more stability for contractors now, especially in drilling hotspots in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia,” Pitzarella says. “We opened our Marcellus office in January 2007 with one person and no other service companies. In our office park alone there are now more than 70 service companies and subcontractors with significant presence who are all setting down roots here.
"What we’ve also seen with this longer-term stability is that it’s not uncommon for many of these entrepreneurs in petro-chemical support businesses and their manufacturing spinoffs to start service businesses and sell them to other companies.”
The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry reports that Marcellus Shale-related employment approached 232,000 workers in the first quarter of 2013 alone. Of those workers, about 28,000 were employed in core shale activity with 204,000 employed in ancillary industries.
“Even with those numbers, we’re barely touching the surface allocations,” Pitzarella says. “It’s still very early, and we’re very excited about the potential of the Upper Devonian, especially in southwestern Pennsylvania.”
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