UTICA SHALE
The Upper Ordovician Utica formation is an organic-rich black shale that ranges from approximately 300 feet in south-central New York and thins to east, west, and north. The Utica Shale is believed to be the source rock for Cambrian through Lower Devonian oil and gas production. Much like the Marcellus shale play, it is believed that horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing can make the Utica a successful gas producer.