Operators Finding Record Wells And New Frontiers In Marcellus/Utica Independents are setting new performance benchmarks for horizontal wells all across the Marcellus Shale play, achieving record production rates with longer laterals, increased fracture stages and reduced cluster stage spacing. But at the same time, several operators are reporting eye-popping success targeting the Utica formation in the heart of Marcellus country in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. That includes a new Range Resources' horizontal Utica well-located in the same county where the Marcellus play was discovered more than a decade ago-that tested at the highest initial production rate reported to date for any shale play. JULY 2015 109