Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s (NYSE: CHK) position in the Utica increasingly seems to be looking from the outside in, according to a report by Bob Brackett, senior analyst with Bernstein Research.

New data released by Ohio’s Department of Natural Resources at the close of 2013 helped provide a picture of 400 wells drilled, with more than 250 producing.

Antero Resources Corp. (NYSE: AR) and Gulfport Energy Corp. (NasdaqGS: GPOR) clearly have the best results, with Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES) and Chesapeake behind, Brackett said. Hess has higher total rates than Chesapeake, but enjoys a higher gas percentage.

In short, the core is getting better, smaller and farther from Chesapeake, Brackett said.

“Chesapeake is clearly the Utica leader but we note a significant gap between Chesapeake results and wells by Antero and Gulfport, with only two of the top 20 wells in the play despite having more than six times the wells producing versus its nearest competitor,” Brackett said.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: APC) and Devon Energy Corp. (NYSE: DVN) have also seen deflated results, though their producing wells count less than a dozen compared to Chesapeake’s 163.

Range Resources has a Utica footprint, but has no wells in Ohio’s database.

“The sweet spot of the Utica is increasingly well-defined and localized,” Brackett said. “Utica activity is still relatively early, based on land retention and rig programs” but Utica volumes could grow, from 0.4 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in the third quarter of 2013, toward multiple Bcf/d.

Chesapeake has invested heavily in the Utica, with $3.5 billion spent in Ohio on exploration, production and royalty payments to landowners.

Chesapeake Utica Operations

Daily net production

165 MMcfe/d (Up 91% sequentially)

Rigs

9 operating

Wells drilled

377, as of Sept. 30

Producing wells

169

Waiting on pipeline

208 wells, various stages of completion

Source: CHK investor presentation

Utica production is a relatively trivial fraction of the company’s total production at about 0.165 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (Bcfe/d), or less than 6% of Chesapeake’s total third quarter 2013 production.

“We believe that the Utica play contributes to Chesapeake’s multiple,” Brackett said. “As such, these less impressive results are a net negative on the stock.”

Still, 668 Utica wells have been drilled according to Ohio’s database. The average Utica well takes just under four rig months, Brackett said.

“A rig in the Utica can complete perhaps three to four wells per year,” Brackett said. Current activity is a combination of retaining acreage, and identifying the core pad drilling is not yet the predominant activity.

If each well holds a section (640 acres), then 430,000 acres of the Utica have been held by drilling.

Since millions of acres have been leased, “we are only part way through the land retention program,” he said.