YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — More than a decade after the first wave of Utica shale drilling swept through eastern Ohio, many of Columbiana County’s legacy wells are producing less oil than they once did. But higher commodity prices are helping sustain royalty payments for some landowners even as production declines.
Wells in Columbiana County with the strongest output tend to be those drilled more recently, such as those on the Norris pad, Ohio Department of Natural Resources data show. Over time, production from these wells levels off, reducing overall yields.
Gloria Mathews, whose land is leased as part of the Tritten well in Center Township, reports that production at that particular well has never been strong when it comes to oil. According to records, the well was drilled by Chesapeake in February 2014. Yet during the first quarter of 2026, the well generated just two barrels of oil and pumped out 47 million cubic feet of gas.
Recent international developments have nevertheless boosted her royalty payments, Mathews says.
“My check last month was double what it was the month before,” she says. Her brother also reported that his royalty checks have nearly doubled.
Mathews says it’s difficult to determine the price point at which these energy companies sell the oil or gas on the market.
“There’s a lag from when it’s actually pulled out of the ground and when they actually sell it,” she says. “They may hold onto it until they think they can get a good price.”
Mathews reports that there’s been little drilling in Center Township since the Utica push of 10 years ago.
“There’s no drilling activity in this particular area,” she says. However, Hilcorp Energy Co., another exploration company that has operated in the Utica for more than a decade, has started new wells in Elk Run Township.
Robust oil and gas prices have attracted interest from mineral rights speculators to the area, Mathews observes. One in particular, a 64-acre lot from the Bates Farm sold at auction May 18 to Bruner Land Co. for $1.2 million, or approximately $18,750 per acre, including mineral rights, according to an Instagram posting by Kaufman Realty, the auctioneer.
“Maybe they know something we don’t,” Mathews says.
While newer wells continue to drive much of the county’s production, Columbiana County remained one of Ohio’s leading oil-producing regions in 2025.
Oil produced from wells in Columbiana County stood at 1.43 million barrels in 2025, or 3% of total state production, a drop of 4.2% compared with results a year earlier. In 2024, the county’s approximately 200 horizontal wells yielded 1.49 million barrels, or 4.3% of the state’s total production, the first time the county surpassed 1 million barrels for a year.
Much of the attention in eastern Ohio’s Utica was initially focused on geology in the southern and middle tier of the play, as exploration companies tapped vast reservoirs of both natural gas and oil in regions such as Carroll, Guernsey and Harrison counties.
EOG’s Folsam CR well in Carroll County, for example, produced 195,194 barrels of oil during the second quarter of 2025, along with 953.5 million cubic feet of natural gas. In all, wells across Carroll County produced 12.34 million barrels of oil in 2025.
Harrison County produced even more. Last year, wells drilled in that county pumped out more than 13 million barrels of oil.
Wells in Belmont County, on the other hand, produced little oil but yielded nearly 500 billion cubic feet of natural gas in 2025, approximately one-quarter of the state’s entire production.
Editor’s note: This story is part of a larger report examining production trends, royalty payments and market conditions across eastern Ohio’s Utica/Point Pleasant shale. Read the full story HERE.