Oil and Gas Developments in North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio

Abstract

The area covered by this report is CSD District 20, including Delaware, North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. Along the Atlantic coastal plain in North Carolina, 5 dry exploratory holes were drilled having a combined total footage of 6,785. In Maryland, 1 dry exploratory hole was drilled to the Oriskany Formation in Garrett County to a total depth of 5,340 ft. In Virginia, only a few of the 12 wells drilled in Chesterfield, Lee, and Tazewell Counties were completed as producers. Most of the gas production for the year came from Tazewell County, whereas the oil production was all in Lee County. The total footage drilled in Virginia was 22,069. Exploration in Pennsylvania resulted in 1 new shallow-field discovery, 3 new shallower pool discoveries, and 1 new deeper pool discovery. The greatest amount of Oriskany Sandstone development drilling was in the Elk Run gas field in western central Pennsylvania, whereas the most active deep drilling was in Erie and Crawford Counties (northwestern Pennsylvania) where development drilling continued in the Lower Silurian gas fields. Developments continued in the old shallow sandstone oil and gas areas of Warren and Venango Counties, as did waterflooding in the Bradford district, McKean County, and the continuation of development drilling in the Run gas field of Jefferson, Indiana, and Clearfield Counties. There were 5 major areas of interest in West Virginia: southern Monongalia County where 6 successful gas wells were completed in South Burns Chapel field in the Onondaga-Oriskany interval; the Kanawha-Putnam Counties area where Rocky Fort field underwent rapid development in the Newburg sand (Upper Silurian); northern Kanawha County where several wells were drilled for Injun oil (middle Mississippian); Nicholas County where a new gas field was being developed in the Big Lime (middle Mississippian Greenbrier Limestone); and in Roane County where 94 Injun oil wells were completed. Drilling activity in Ohio was directed toward the Cambrian in central Ohio, and the Silurian Clinton sandstones and the Lower Mississippian Berea Sandstone in southeastern Ohio. Early in 1967 a plug-back operation in a Precambrian test drilled in 1966 discovered oil in the Devonian Ohio Shale section in southeastern Ohio. Discovery of oil from the Ordovician Trenton Limestone-Dolomite in the north-central part of the state created a minor flurry of excitement.