Ohio remains a comparatively small producer — 4.8 million barrels of oil and 78 billion cubic feet of gas in 2011 — ranking it 18th in oil and 20th in natural gas production among the states, according to federal figures. Two years ago, though, the first wells penetrated the Utica Shale. Since then, according to the latest weekly tally by Ohio’s Natural Resources Department, 255 of the 548 Utica wells that received permits have been drilled and completed, and 74 are producing natural gas.

Image Chesapeake Energy and other companies are building offices, pipelines and processing facilities to serve wells in several Ohio counties.

Companies are using the process of hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, which pumps a mixture of sand, water and chemicals at extremely high pressure down a well to fracture the rock and release the gas. A completed Utica well, which dives vertically 6,000 to 10,000 feet and then travels horizontally through the shale for roughly the same distance, costs $6 million to $10 million, according to industry reports.

With all this energy-related construction, industry executives believe that Ohio will produce two billion to three billion cubic feet of processed gas daily within the decade. Even so, fracking has attracted some opposition in eastern Ohio, and the process has raised questions about water contamination and air pollution that are under investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Utica Shale yields “dry” natural gas, which is nearly pure methane and so plentiful in the United States that the market price, just more than $3 per thousand cubic feet, is near a record low.

The shale also contains more valuable “wet gas,” which is methane permeated with ethane, propane, pentane and butane that can be separated and used to manufacture chemicals, plastics, and liquid fuels like gasoline. The abundance of natural gas in the United States also drove prices lower last year for the four liquid compounds. But with a price range of $30 to $95 a barrel, depending on the product, processing and marketing wet gas can be very profitable.

A Utica well in Belmont County, developed by Gulfport Energy, last year produced 21 million cubic feet a day of natural gas, in addition to 945 barrels a day of ethane, propane, butane and other liquids. Tim Carr, a professor of energy at West Virginia University, estimated in January that at $3 per thousand cubic feet of gas and $50 for each barrel of liquids, the well generated more than $100,000 a day in revenue.