Fourteen of the students, who are enrolled in the petroleum geology program at Kent State University, were treated to a recent visit at gas and oil and injection wells owned and operated by David R. Hill, standing, third from l, president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association. The students were excited to be on an actual operating oilfield. They are members of the Kent State Student Chapter of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. Front row, l to r, Tim Reed, Elizabeth Bargdill, Krista Hardin, Joe Jeandervin, John Flask; standing, Pawel Rybak, Stacee Stinedurf, David Hill, Jonathan Mills, Roman Waked, Aramide Adesulu, Shannon Hunter, Joe Fejko, Ben Stillman, Mike Chadsey; back row, c, Sam Timko; and a PDC oil and gas worker.
Kent State Students
Visit Oilfield Sites
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Judie Perkowski • Dix Communications ore than a dozen Kent State University students hung on every word spoken by Ohio Oil and Gas Association President David Hill at the three well sites the group visited to view first hand what they had seen only in text books and PowerPoint presentations. The trip was organized after Hill was a guest speaker at Kent State’s petroleum geology program. Students asked if it was possible to visit one of Hill’s sites, and Mike Chadsey, OOGA Director of Public Relations and alumnus of Kent State, was all too happy to accommodate the students’ request.
efforts of a petroleum geologist or engineer. First stop was at a farm in Salesville where Hill owns and operates a Utica unconventional (horizontal) well and a conventional (vertical) drilled well. Unconventional drilling is a longer process and unconventional oil drilling is a much more expensive process than conventional oil drilling. Some companies specialize in conventional or unconventional drilling. Most of the time companies begin drilling for oil conventional only, but then begin unconventional drilling later on to extract more oil.
Although Hill owns the wells, he leases the site from the Chadsey was also available to answer questions during the landowners who receive a royalty for use of their property. oilfield visit. Hill, a petroleum geologist, has been in the oil and “This is so great to actually see a real well site, instead of just gas industry for more than 30 years. looking at slides,” said Stinedurf. Stacee Stinedurf, Kent State graduate student and president of the Kent State Student Chapter of the American Association of After Hill answered questions and talked about how the geology Petroleum Geologists and leader of the group, said they were all of the land determined the kind of well that would be appropriate very excited to actually see the three types of wells in operating for the extraction of gas or oil, or both. mode. Next stop was to Old Washington where the students got up close The students’ enthusiasm neutralized the chilly November and personal with a pumpjack. A pumpjack, which resembles a weather as they hiked through fields to see up close the resulting bobbing horse head, is the overground drive for a reciprocating 14 OhioGas&Oil
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