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OFS Co. with 75 Jobs Moves from Washington, PA to Chester, WV

Here’s something you don’t read about every day. An oilfield services company, Heavy Iron Oilfield Services, recently moved from its birthplace (founded in 2011) in Washington (Washington County), PA, across the border to a new location in Chester (Hancock County), WV. Washington County is a hotbed of drilling activity in Southwestern PA. But then again, Hancock County sees a lot of drilling, too. The reason for the move? Easier access to multiple job sites in the tri-state area and a pool of qualified workers to expand the business.
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Washington County, PA Panel Discusses Future of ARCH2 Hydrogen Hub

The Washington County (PA) Chamber of Commerce held an event last week with a panel of experts involved with the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2) to discuss the long-term impacts of the project on the local economy and job market. ARCH2 was first proposed by (mainly sponsored by) West Virginia. Ohio and Pennsylvania later joined in supporting the ARCH2 proposal, which was selected by the Bidenistas as one of seven regional hydrogen hubs to share in a $7 billion pot o’ gold (see Hydrogen Hub Winners Announced – WV Takes Prize in M-U Region). ARCH2’s portion of the money is $925 million.
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Oil & Gas Jobs Continue To Grow – Latest Numbers for PA, OH, WV

The Energy Workforce & Technology Council, based in Houston, TX, is the national trade association for the global energy technology and services sector. The Council reports jobs in the O&G sector increased in November, adding 1,286 jobs. The O&G industry employs 652,398 jobs across the country, just 54,130 jobs away from returning to pre-pandemic levels. And how much do those jobs pay? The average hourly earnings for frontline oil-and-gas workers rose 1.3% in October from the previous month to $44.11, according to a Labor Department report released last week.
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Muskingum Watershed Generated $1B in Econ Impact from Utica Drilling

For more than a decade, MDN has brought you stories about shale development on and under land controlled by the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD), an agency formed in 1933 to help control flooding and promote water conservation in the Muskingum River watershed area of Ohio, an area that covers 8,000 square miles (see our Muskingum Watershed stories here). Over the years, MWCD has leased tens of thousands of acres for Utica Shale drilling and cut deals to sell water to drillers for fracking. According to a new study from Cleveland State University, the MWCD’s aggressive leasing for Utica drilling has brought more than $1 billion in economic stimulus to the region. And not one penny is government (your) money! It’s all private money being injected into the Buckeye State.
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PA Republican Legislators “All-In” on Regional Hydrogen Hubs

Senator Camera Bartolotta, R-Washington, speaks in support of hydrogen hub development in Pennsylvania on October 24, 2023 at the State Capitol.

Five Pennsylvania Republican State Senators held a press conference yesterday at the State Capitol in Harrisburg to proclaim their love and support for hydrogen projects in light of the recent Biden Hydrogen Hub Hunger Games announcement. As we’ve been covering for over a week, seven projects were selected to receive a collective $7 billion in funding from the Bidenistas, including the WV-led Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2) project (see Hydrogen Hub Winners Announced – WV Takes Prize in M-U Region). Pennsylvania will get a small (but meaningful) piece of the action as part of ARCH2. PA will also participate in a second hydrogen hub project — the Delaware-led Mid-Atlantic Clean Hydrogen Hub (MACH2) project. The Republican Senators like PA’s prospects for both ARCH2 and MACH2.
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Marcellus Shale Created 123K Jobs, Added $41B to PA Economy in 2022

Natural gas development is fundamental to the health and strength of Pennsylvania’s economy, supporting well over 100,000 family-sustaining careers, boosting state tax revenues, and generating billions in economic benefits, according to a new economic impact analysis (full copy below) commissioned by the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC). The analysis, released at the kickoff of the SHALE INSIGHT™ conference, underscores the economic benefits of natural gas development across the entire Commonwealth as well as the sector’s projected impacts through 2050. Pennsylvania’s natural gas sector supports about 123,000 statewide jobs and contributed more than $41 billion in 2022 state economic activity, according to the report created by energy economists at FTI Consulting, Inc., a global business advisory firm. Additionally, natural gas production royalties paid to private and government entities reached $6.3 billion in 2022 alone.
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Is Fracking Good for Pennsylvania? MSC Destroys Anti-Fracking Screed

The nutters are out in full force, particularly in Pennsylvania, using fraudulent “studies” by the Ohio River Valley Insititute (ORVI) and (sadly) the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) to call for an end to the Marcellus industry in the great Keystone State. A recent “letter to the editor” appearing in the Sunbury (PA) Daily Item is a perfect example. On Sept. 3, the Daily Item ran an op-ed titled “Is fracking good for Pennsylvania,” concluding that it is not. It was written by a member of the Climate Reality Project, a far-left organization that irrationally hates fossil energy. The typical references were made to the fraudulent ORVI and Pitt studies. Ten days later, another op-ed appeared in the Daily Item, written by David Callahan from the Marcellus Shale Coalition, setting the record straight.
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Maine Cement Plant Closing Because Gas Pipeline was Canceled

Actions have consequences. Environuts, like the lefties in Maine, seem to forget that. In early 2021, Summit Natural Gas of Maine, a regional utility company, announced plans to extend its service territory into Maine’s Midcoast region with a $90 million pipeline project (see Summit Natural Gas of Maine Plans Small $90M Pipe in Midcoast). The company’s expansion into Knox and Waldo Counties would bring natural gas to residential and commercial customers, like the Dragon Cement plant in Thomaston, and to the communities along the Route 1 corridor. After the announcement, environuts raised such a fuss that Summit surrendered without a fight and canceled the project (see Environuts Cause Summit to Cancel $90M Pipe Project in Maine). Dragon says because of the canceled pipe, it will now close the plant, devastating Thomaston with lost jobs and lost tax revenues. Consequences.
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Belmont County, OH Lodging Tax from O&G Workers Grows Tourism

The transient workers in the Ohio Utica Shale field must stay somewhere. That somewhere is typically a hotel or motel. Belmont County, one of the hotbeds of Utica drilling, has many such transient workers. Their overnight stays at area hotels and motels create a big pile of lodging tax revenue, which is used to help fund the Belmont County Tourism Council. And the Council is thankful for it!
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PA Manufacturers Release Study Supporting Philly LNG Export Plan

Last week, MDN told you about the third and final public hearing held by the Pennsylvania House Philadelphia LNG Natural Gas Export Task Force (see Chester Residents Oppose Philly LNG Export Project at Final Hearing). The Task Force was established by law in early 2022 to study how to establish Philadelphia LNG exports to international markets, particularly European exports. The task force is supposed to deliver its report by November of this year. We have an addendum to our previous coverage of what was (in retrospect) Kabuki theater staged by the extreme left at that hearing.
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WV Country’s 4th Largest NatGas Producer, Supplies 10% of U.S. Gas

Using data from several government agencies, the Gas and Oil Association of West Virginia, Inc. (GO-WV) published its annual Gas Facts report last week. According to the report (copy below), West Virginia natural gas production increased 6% to 2.8 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) in 2022. WV has moved up from fifth to now fourth largest natural gas producer in the country, providing 10% of the entire country’s natural gas supply! Combined severance tax revenue from natural gas, oil, and natural gas liquids contributed 70% (nearly $714 million) of the over $1 billion allocated to the State General Revenue Fund for fiscal year-end June 30, 2023. The O&G sector in WV employs more than 17,000 direct jobs in the state, with an average salary of $93,739. According to a study by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, indirect jobs in WV related to the O&G industry number over 73,000 and contribute nearly $13 billion to the state’s economy.
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O&G Contributed $143B, 847K Jobs in PA, OH, WV Economies in 2021

Every so often, the lying left will poke its head up and make the wild claim that the shale industry hasn’t done a darned thing for the jobs or economy in various states–like Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia (see Heinz Endowments Launches Another Fake ‘Report’ Bashing the M-U). They say, “All those claims of jobs created and economic benefits are just smoke and mirrors.” We say the environmental left is full of (expletive deleted). And we can prove it. Earlier this week, the American Petroleum Institute (API) released a massive new report compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) on the growing economic contributions of America’s natural gas and oil industry in all 50 states, including PA, OH, and WV, in 2021. For those three states (PA, OH, WV) in 2021, the O&G industry (largely shale) collectively contributed over $143 billion to state economies and supported more than 847,000 jobs! Stick that in your bong and smoke it, Big Green.
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PwC Study: U.S. O&G Provided Nearly $2 Trillion in Benefits in 2021

The American Petroleum Institute (API) earlier this week released a new report on the growing economic contributions of America’s natural gas and oil industry in all 50 states, including investment in America ranging from taxes and workforce wages paid to indirect and induced jobs in retail, manufacturing, agriculture, and other sectors throughout the energy supply chain. The study, commissioned by API and prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), showed that the O&G industry supported 10.8 million jobs and contributed nearly $1.8 trillion to the U.S. economy in 2021. We love the fossil fuel industry! And you should, too.
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Cleveland U Study: Ohio Utica Shale Investment Tops $100 Billion

JobsOhio, a private, nonprofit corporation that works on behalf of the state to drive job creation and new capital investment in Ohio by attracting business, contracts out economic research to Cleveland State University (CSU) to keep tabs on the Utica Shale industry. JobsOhio released the latest CSU updated report yesterday (full copy below), showing that more than $100 billion has been invested in Ohio across natural gas, natural gas liquids, and petrochemical supply chain industries in just over ten years. Massive!
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Bideniflation Begins to Ease a Little in U.S. Shale Basins

Inflation is a measure of the rate of rising prices of goods and services in an economy. Inflation can occur when prices rise due to increases in production costs, such as raw materials and wages. A surge in demand for products and services can cause inflation as consumers are willing to pay more for the product. But inflation can also be caused by the government printing and spending too much money. We refer to the current high inflation in our country as Bidenflation–caused by the Biden White House and colluding Democrats in Congress–because they passed massive, reckless spending bills. Much of that spending is being paid for by simply printing new money. When you have more money chasing the same amount of goods and services, prices go up. Inflation.
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U.S. Agriculture’s Essential Ingredient is…Natural Gas!

Apart from the obvious benefits rural landowners (farmers) receive when leasing their land for shale gas drilling, did you know that modern agriculture, those same farmers, could not exist without natural gas? U.S. agriculture is a MAJOR part of the U.S. economy, creating 17.2 million jobs (5 million direct jobs) and contributing a mind-blowing $1.75 trillion to our country’s GDP (gross domestic product). The agricultural sector accounts for nearly 15% of U.S. commercial and industrial natural gas demand. Key feedstocks like ammonia, which is used to make nitrogenous fertilizer, are produced from natural gas. America’s farms and ranches have been key beneficiaries of the growth in U.S. natural gas production.
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