WV Oil and Gas Production Reaches Record High for Tenth Consecutive Year
The
Mountain State’s oil and gas industry continues to reach new heights, according
to data from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.
The
state’s oil and gas production levels in 2018 surpassed 2017 levels, marking
the 10th consecutive year of output increases.
According
to the DEP’s Office of Oil and Natural Gas, production of natural gas in 2018
rose to 1.8 trillion cubic feet from 1.5 trillion cubic feet in 2017, a
year-over-year increase of 17%.
Anne Blankenship, executive director of the West Virginia Oil & Natural Gas Association, said the state continues to benefit from its abundant natural resources.
“To
put this monumental volume of gas production into context, the average West
Virginia household consumes about 72 thousand cubic feet of natural gas per
year,” she said. “We produce enough gas in one day to meet the needs of all
West Virginians.”
Charlie
Burd, executive director of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of West
Virginia, said the industry has come a long way in just over a decade.
“We
started developing horizontally in late 2007. In 2008 we only produced 256
billion cubic feet of natural gas,” he said. “That’s many more times now than
then.”
Oil
production in West Virginia grew nearly 60%, from 7.5 million barrels in 2017
to 12 million barrels in 2018.
This
is the largest amount of oil produced since 1900, when the state produced 16 million
barrels, according to the DEP.
Doddridge
County is the state’s most prolific natural gas producer at 434 billion cubic
feet. Production increased 53 billion cubic feet over 2017 levels, growing by
14% year-over-year.
In Tyler County, production grew by 59% to 272 billion cubic feet, making it the state’s second largest gas producing county.
Coming
in third, Ritchie County saw production increase 26%, rising from 158 Bcf to
200 billion cubic feet in the span of one year.
Rounding
out the top 10 natural gas producing counties were: Wetzel with 198 billion
cubic; Marshall with 163 billion cubic feet; Harrison with 123 billion cubic
feet; Ohio with 71 billion cubic feet; Monongalia with 66 billion cubic feet;
Taylor with 37 billion cubic feet and, Marion with 35 billion cubic feet.
Turning
to oil production, Marshall County, the state’s largest oil producing county,
grew 116% year-over-year, rising from 1,347,636 barrels in 2017 to 2,914,894
barrels in 2018.
Ohio
County is the state’s second leading oil producing county, tallying 2,362,026
barrels in 2018.
Rounding
out the top 10 oil producing counties were: Brooke with 2,063,152 barrels;
Tyler with 1,399,594 barrels; Doddridge with 1,104,430 barrels; Ritchie with
924,024 barrels; Wentzel with 640,790 barrels; Clay with 92,594 barrels;
Lincoln with 87,025 barrels; and, Roane with 78,423 barrels.
While
the historic figures are worthy of celebration, the state is still being
outproduced by some of its regional neighbors, Burd said.
“We still fall behind Ohio by a small margin, but Pennsylvania produces 3 1/2 times more natural gas than we do,” he said.