对于一代又一代的野猫开采者来说，“原油总是在以前被发现的地方找到的”这句格言已经被证实是正确的。今天，这句话在俄亥俄州得到了证实，该州自 1814 年以来一直在生产原油。

第一口井是索拉-麦基井，井口很浅，钻探的目的是获取盐水，盐水在当时是一种很有价值的商品，位于诺布尔县考德威尔附近。不过盐水中充满了石油。

该油井的合伙人西拉斯·索拉 (Silas Thorla) 和罗伯特·麦基 (Robert McKee) 决定用毯子吸收石油，然后将其榨出并作为外用药物出售，称之为塞内卡油。

1859年，在全球石油工业的开创者——宾夕法尼亚州的德雷克油井开业几个月后，俄亥俄州东北部的特朗布尔县也开凿了一个专门用于开采石油的洞。

当时在克利夫兰担任簿记员的约翰·D·洛克菲勒进入了这一行业，于 1870 年成立了标准石油公司，主要专注于炼油和运输：石油运输。

到本世纪初，他的众多企业控制了美国约 90% 的原油产量，但 11 年后，这些企业在美国最高法院输掉一场反垄断诉讼后被拆分。

自 1814 年的那口盐水井以来，经过几个世纪，EOG Resources将四口水平井钻得更深，钻到了奥陶纪尤蒂卡页岩中。三月份，这些水平井在开钻的前八天共产出 30,800 桶石油，平均每天 963 桶。

事实证明，EOG 发射台 White Rhino 距离 1814 Thorla-McKee 仅有几英里。

EOG 井是新尤蒂卡油田最南端的试验井之一，在过去十年中，其他运营商也采取了同样的措施，现在他们正在将完井技术应用于水平井，但使用的完井配方是当时制定的。

例如，卡罗尔县的一个平台目前正使用滑溜水进行完井，而最初的油井在 2015 年就已使用凝胶进行注水。

在新的油气储量中，自 2019 年以来，在尤蒂卡地层的 Point Pleasant 中已发现了超过 700 个水平井，涉及干气、湿气和挥发性油相。

瞄准石油开采目标的包括恩西诺能源公司在哈里森县斯托克镇塔潘湖附近挖掘的三个戴维·韦弗井。

该油田于 2020 年 12 月投产，投产后的前 31 天共产油 104,000 桶。该油田也没有停产。今年第一季度，该油田产油 30,000 桶。

截至 3 月 31 日，他们总共在 40 个月的在线生产中生产了 105 万桶石油。溶解气总量为 65 亿立方英尺；水为 379,000 桶。

斯托克的恩西诺的一些水井位于塔潘湖下，塔潘湖是马斯金汉流域保护区的一个水库，以 1938 年因筑坝而流离失所的社区命名，还有现在位于湖下的莱西维尔。

该区利用特许权使用费从石油和相关天然气中赚取收益，四月份在其中一个码头开设了一家酒吧和烧烤店，此外，占地 7,350 英亩的休闲区正在进行其他改进。

再往南，在 1814 年那口井的附近，有一家 Microtel Inn & Suites 酒店，它的广告上写着“靠近尤蒂卡页岩”。它位于剑桥，距离考德威尔和格恩西县县城以北约半小时车程。

在当地很容易就能开始交谈。最后，当地人会问：“你为什么来俄亥俄州？”

在纽约市，“石油和天然气”通常会引起冲突。而在俄亥俄州，答案却让人喜笑颜开。“他们在我家附近钻井！”一个人兴奋地说。

俄亥俄州是石油和天然气工业的中心。

For generations of wildcatters, the adage “oil is found where it’s been found before” has proven true. Today, it’s proving true in Ohio, which has been producing crude since 1814.

That first well, the Thorla-McKee, was a shallow one and actually drilled for brine, a valuable commodity at the time, near Caldwell in Noble County. The salt was saturated with oil, though.

The well’s partners, Silas Thorla and Robert McKee, decided to soak up the oil with blankets, ring it out and sell it as a topical medicine, calling it Seneca Oil.

In 1859, a hole was made in Trumbull County in northeastern Ohio specifically for oil a few months after the global oil industry’s opener, the Drake well in Pennsylvania.

John D. Rockefeller, a bookkeeper in Cleveland at the time, got into the business, forming Standard Oil Co. in 1870 and focusing primarily on refining and transportation: oil-hauling.

His myriad enterprises had a hand in some 90% of all U.S. crude by the turn of the century and were famously broken up 11 years later after losing an antitrust case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

More than a couple of centuries since that 1814 brine well, EOG Resources put four horizontals far deeper, landing them in the Ordovician Age’s Utica Shale. These flowed a combined 30,800 bbl in their first eight days in March, averaging 963 bbl/d each.

Turns out, that EOG pad, White Rhino, is just a few miles from the 1814 Thorla-McKee.

The EOG holes are among the southernmost tests of the new Utica oil play, in which operators are putting completions in laterals after other operators did the same during the past decade, but with completion recipes that were minted at that time.

For example, a pad in Carroll County is being completed with slickwater today, while initial wells were pumped with gel in 2015.

In the renewed play, more than 700 horizontals have been landed in the Utica Formation’s Point Pleasant since 2019—in the dry-gas, wet-gas and volatile oil phases.

Among those targeting oil are Encino Energy’s three David Weaver holes in Harrison County, Stock township, near Tappan Lake.

Brought online in December of 2020, they made a combined 104,000 bbl their first 31 days online. They haven’t sputtered out either. This past first quarter, they produced 30,000 bbl.

Altogether, in 40 months online each, they’ve made 1.05 MMbbl through March 31. Solution gas totaled 6.5 Bcf; water, 379,000 bbl.

Some of Encino’s wells in Stock are under Tappan Lake, a reservoir in the Muskingham Watershed Conservation District that’s named for the community that was displaced in 1938 by the damming, along with Laceyville which is now under the lake.

With royalties, the district is earning from the oil and associated gas, a bar and grill was opened at one of the marinas in April and other improvements are underway in the 7,350-acre recreational area.

Back south, in the area of that 1814 well, is a Microtel Inn & Suites that advertises, “Close to [the] Utica Shale.” It’s in Cambridge, about a half-hour north of Caldwell and the Guernsey County seat.

Conversations are easily struck up in the area. Eventually, a local will ask, “What brings you to Ohio?”

In New York City, “oil and gas” typically prompts confrontation. In Ohio, the answer brings smiles. “They’re drilling a well near my home!” one said, excitedly.

In Ohio, the oil and gas industry is at home.