PITTSBURGH -- The Utica shale might be on the fast track to development compared to other North American shale plays in the past, but the lack of available data and midstream infrastructure has some people raising concerns over the play’s viability.

According to Hsulin Peng, senior analyst in E&P at Robert W. Baird & Co., and Christopher Simon, managing director and co-head of A&D at Raymond James, these concerns are overblown. While speaking at Hart Energy’s DUG East conference in Pittsburgh, Simon noted the Utica is in its early stages and thus far there have been impressive rates in the rich window of the play.

However, many shale plays follow similar phases, along with improvements learned from each previous play and along with improvements in technology. These phases follow a trend in which producers find the most economically viable and productive portions and contract drilling to the newfound core. “These production boundaries are done through acreage pooling and trading, HBP (held by production) drilling, A&D transactions and eventually full development PADD drilling,” he said.

Compared with the longer development time for the Barnett shale, which was the first shale to be developed, these phases and faster developments were compared with. The Barnett play began development in early 2000 before peaking in 2008, and has resulted in more than 14,000 wells being drilled over the course of 14 years.

The Bakken shale’s development was a little slower than the Barnett’s, as 6,700 wells have been drilled in 11 years, and the play peaked last year. By comparison, the Eagle Ford has already reached more than 5,400 wells in seven years and is still peaking.

According to Simon, the Utica shale is on a pace similar to the Eagle Ford’s, as it had 292 wells in production in 2012, expected to grow to nearly 400 in 2013. Additionally, the rig count has more than doubled in 2013 to 37 rigs from 14 rigs in 2012.

This growth has been despite the fact that the state of Ohio, where most of the play is located, only required producers to submit production data on an annual basis. This is much different than other states, which require data be submitted on a monthly basis. The good news is that Ohio has responded to this criticism by now requiring producers to submit their data on a quarterly basis beginning in the third quarter of this year.

“This will really help accelerate the play’s development as you will be able to determine where the strong, productive areas are,” he said.

The confusion over the Utica is best typified by a recent survey from Baird, which found that the play’s well results and infrastructure were both viewed as among the most positive and the most negative catalysts in the energy industry.

Peng said the midstream infrastructure is expected to remain fluid as the sector plays catch-up. This is similar to how midstream build-out has occurred in other shale plays, especially the Marcellus, which has been built from the ground up.

“When there is money to be made, companies will show up, similar to the Marcellus shale. We think investor fear over the lack of midstream infrastructure, at least in the medium term. We are in the very early days of the play and there is much more to come,” she said.