YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Horizontal wells in Columbiana County produced nearly 1.5 million barrels of oil in 2024, a 54% increase from the previous year and a production record in the northern tier of the Utica/Point Pleasant shale play, according to data released from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

According to ODNR, the county’s wells produced 1.494 million barrels last year, compared with 970,936 barrels in 2023, data show. To place these numbers into context, Columbiana wells in 2022 yielded just 20,350 barrels of oil for the entire year.

Oil production in nearby Mahoning and Trumbull counties to the north is negligible, according to records.

During the fourth quarter of 2024, Columbiana County’s horizontal wells reported a total of 274,299 barrels, data show. All the oil-producing wells in the county are owned by EAP Ohio LLC, a subsidiary of Houston-based Encino Energy, according to records. The largest amount of oil produced from a single well in the county during the quarter was the Grove CL in Knox Township, which produced 34,730 barrels, ODNR reports. The largest oil producing well for a single quarter was EAP’s Lehwald 205H in Butler Township, which yielded 97,274 barrels during the first three months of 2024.

EAP owns all but two of the top 10 oil producing wells in the state when output is measured by a single quarter. The largest oil well during a three-month period in 2024 was EAP’s Sproul TC well in Tuscarawas County in the second quarter. That well yielded 150,105 barrels, ODNR data show.

“The production results continue to prove that Ohio has a world-class oil and natural gas play that is economic and competing with the best wells in the country,” said Jackie Stewart, spokeswoman for Encino. “Encino has unlocked this reality, and the best part is that we’re just getting started.”

Oil production across Ohio is more resilient than ever, data show, and has commanded the attention of the industry on a global scale.

In 2024, Ohio’s 3,554 horizontal wells produced a total of 34.5 million barrels of oil drawn from the Utica/Point Pleasant – a 24% increase from the previous year, data show.

EAP has emerged as the state’s top oil producer by far. The company has offices in Carroll County, among the hottest areas for oil production in Ohio.

EAP Ohio operated 1,068 producing wells across eastern Ohio during the fourth quarter, according to the latest data provided by ODNR. During that period, the company’s wells yielded more than 4.7 million barrels, or nearly 47% of the oil produced in Ohio during the period. For all of 2024, EAP’s wells produced 16.586 million barrels of oil, or nearly 48% of the entire state’s output last year, data show.

Much of eastern Ohio’s oil production is concentrated in Carroll and Harrison counties, according to ODNR records. During the fourth quarter, wells in Carroll County – just south of Columbiana County – yielded more than 2.6 million barrels. For all of 2024, the county’s 586 wells produced 8.75 million barrels. EAP operates most of these wells – more than 500 – while energy producers INR Ohio and EOG Resources have comparatively smaller stakes in the county.

Harrison County’s results are even more impressive: the 580 horizontal wells active across that county pumped out more than 3 million barrels during the final three months of 2024 and 9.2 million barrels over the entire year.

EAP also holds a significant position in Harrison County, as does major oil and gas producer Ascent Resources Utica LLC. EOG Resources, Gulfport Appalachia LLC, Sound Energy Inc. and SWN Production Co. LLC also have a presence across the county, ODNR records show.

Still a Gas Giant

Natural gas continues to play a major role in the Utica/Point Pleasant, though production has leveled over the past two years. Ohio produced another 2.1 trillion cubic feet of gas in 2024, approximately flat with all of 2023 and 2022, according to ODNR data.

In regions such as Columbiana County though, companies such as Houston-based Hilcorp Energy Co., among one of the earlier prospectors in this section of the Utica/Point Pleasant, have enjoyed strong production numbers over the past decade.

During the fourth quarter of 2024, for example, Hilcorp wells produced 16.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas in Columbiana County, ODNR data show. The county’s top producing gas well for the period was Hilcorp’s Unkefer 8H well, which yielded 797,496 million cubic feet of gas.

Columbiana County’s wells, including those owned by Hilcorp, EAP – which yielded 8.5 billion cubic feet – Pin Oak Energy and Geopetro LLC, together produced 25.1 billion cubic feet of gas during the quarter, an increase of nearly 20% compared with the previous quarter.

“This is an exciting time for our state,” Stewart said. “There’s a ton of energy around, and we have a premier oil and natural gas play ready to supply the moment.” 

Pictured at top: Encino Energy rig workers.