More gas for Gulfport in Utica play

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OKLAHOMA CITY, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- Oklahoma company Gulfport Energy said two wells in the Utica shale play yielded a combined 26.9 million cubic feet of gas per day during testing.

Gulfport said the Clay 1-4H well in the Utica shale play yielded 5.9 million cubic feet of natural gas during a 12 hour test. Natural gas from the site is expected on the commercial market by April.

The Stutzman 1-14H well sustained a four-hour rate of 21.0 million cubic feet during testing and gas there is expected in a commercial pipeline by June.

Gulfport last month said it spent $300 million to acquire 30,000 net acres of Utica shale in a deal with Windsor Ohio LLC. Gulfport amended the deal to pay another $70 million to take an additional 7,000 shale acres from the company.

In October, the U.S. Geological Survey provided its first assessment of the Utica shale deposit. It said the reserve, which lies under the Marcellus shale play, contains 38 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable natural gas and 940 million barrels of unconventional oil resources.

The fields are part of the Appalachian Basin, which the USGS said is the longest-producing petroleum play in the United States.