Oil and Gas Program History
The Division of Mineral Resources Management’s oil and gas programs were incorporated into the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) in 1965 to regulate drilling and production of Ohio’s oil and gas resources.
Most of Ohio’s 64,378 active wells are classified as “stripper” wells or wells that produce less than 10 barrels (42 gallons per barrel) of oil per day or less than 60 thousand cubic feet (mcf) of gas per day.
In 2010, Ohio wells produced more than 4.78 million barrels of oil and more than 78 billion cubic feet of natural gas. Market value for oil and gas production totaled nearly $718 million dollars. Even though Ohio’s gas production accounts for only 12% of Ohio’s consumption, it is equivalent to the amount required to heat more than 1 million homes and businesses. In 2010, Ohio's natural gas and crude oil producers generated royalty payments to landowners amounting to over $44 million, and provided an additional $3.6 million per year in free "natural gas" to mineral interest owners.
In 2010, the Division of Mineral Resources Management:
- Released 2009 annual statements of production. This data (51,230 records) is available by county or for the entire state
- Issued 1,512 permits, including 651 permits to drill (a 11% decrease) and 740 permits to plug (an increase of 16.7%)
- Performed more than 13,138 site inspections
- Witnessed over 89% of 429 plugging operations under Division jurisdiction
- Plugged 12 orphan wells, including four funded through the Landowner Grants Program
- Continued to receive favorable reviews by US EPA for management of the Underground Injection Control (UIC) Program
- Inspected brine injection wells once every eleven weeks on average, the highest inspection frequency for any UIC program in the nation
In 2010, the Ohio oil and gas industry:
- Drilled an estimated 431 oil and gas wells in 44 counties
- Cuyahoga County was the most active county with 37 wells drilled
- Over 230 wells were drilled to the Clinton sandstone in 21 counties
- Oil production: 4,784,690 barrels
- Value of oil production: $356 million
- Gas production: 72,121,503 mcf
- Value of gas production: $362 million
Ohio’s Oil and Gas History
Perhaps the least known fact about the State of Ohio is its long and colorful history in the oil and gas industry, dating back to the mid-1800s. The first commercial production of oil in Ohio was discovered in Macksburg (Washington County) in 1860. As of 2010, the number of oil and gas wells drilled in Ohio reached 275,774 wells yielding 1.136 billion barrels of crude oil and more than 8.52 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
Ohio remains a leading producer of oil and gas, ranking in the top half of all producing states in the nation. Research completed by ODNR’s Divisions of Mineral Resources Management and Geological Survey indicates that Ohio has significant remaining producible oil and gas reserves.
Following are additional facts and information which may be of interest to you regarding one of Ohio’s most precious, but little known, natural resources.
Ohio’s Oil and Gas History:
- Deepest well drilled in Ohio: 13,727feet in 1910 (Belmont County)
- Deepest producing well in Ohio: 8,794 feet in Harrison County
- First year of production: Oil - 1860; Gas - 1884
- Year and amount of peak production:
- Oil: 23,941,000 barrels in 1896
- Gas: 186.5 billion cubic feet in 1984
- Total number of wells drilled: 275,774; Ohio ranks 4th nationally behind Texas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania.
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