Ohio's latest shale oil and gas production numbers don't look like good news.

According to the release, issued shortly hours before the Labor Day weekend, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources declared the production numbers for the second quarter and first half of the year.  

The agency noted that of the 1,415 Ohio horizontally-drilled shale wells in the state, only 1,362 have been reported production. A year earlier, the agency reported 978 of the 1,020 shale wells had been reported production.

Oil production has fallen significantly below year-ago levels, from 5.9 million barrels during the second quarter of  last year to 4.8 million barrels during the same period this year.

Gas production is usually higher compared to year-ago quarterly output levels, but it's clear that the roaring quarter-to-quarter increases in gas production that created so much optimism over the last couple of years have ended.

Many producers had joked as early as 2009, that Ohio may be the "Saudi Arabia of gas," as, but gas that sells for about half the already-low national prices is not going to be produced for long.

The evidence of a gas slowdown can be seen in the increase, which is only slight, from the first three months of the year to the second three-month period and then comparing that increase to last year.

In the first quarter of this year, shale gas production totaled 329.4 billion cubic feet.

The oil situation is even more dramatic,especially comparing year-over-year totals. Oil production in the second quarter was down almost 20 percent from production during the same time in 2015.  

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By Prakriti Neogi