PA Construction Co. Glenn O. Hawbaker Loses PennDOT Contracts
Glenn O. Hawbaker, Inc., long known for providing stone quarries and asphalt plants in Pennsylvania and Ohio, also provides civil construction services for shale well sites. In August 2021, Pennsylvania’s then-Attorney General, Josh Shapiro, announced a plea deal with Hawbaker to pay back $20 million in alleged “stolen wages” from over 1,000 Hawbaker employees (see PA Construction Co. Glenn Hawbaker Pays $20M for “Stolen Wages”). After the plea deal, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Transportation (PennDOT) moved to deny any new construction contracts to Hawbaker for three years — contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Hawbaker sued to block the PennDOT order barring them from pursuing state contracts.
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On Monday, local business leaders in Jefferson County, OH, were treated to an update on the Utica Shale and how local manufacturers can benefit from the growth in the shale industry. According to Robert Naylor, executive director for the Jefferson County Port Authority, “the (purpose) of the workshop was to stress or demonstrate how the business community — vendors and manufacturers — could enter the energy supply chain to create jobs, workforce development and overall economic game for our region.” Two powerhouse speakers from 
EnerStar Solutions is a Canadian-based, privately-owned company providing goods and services to remote sites (i.e. drilling sites). The kinds of things EnerStar provides include accommodations, communications, power, lighting, and more. The company’s key areas of operation include the Marcellus/Utica, Permian, Delaware, and Bakken shale regions. EnerStar is growing. Yesterday the company announced it is buying Civeo Corporation’s U.S. wellsite service business for an undisclosed amount. Civeo is a global provider of hospitality services and workforce accommodations.
It finally seems as if economic activity is picking up once again in the Marcellus/Utica. And we don’t mean just shale drillers and pipeline companies. The companies that supply those companies–the supply chain–is seeing an uptick in business, according to an article appearing in the Pittsburgh Business Times. Companies like U.S. Steel, MSA, and Steel Nation are reporting strong increases in sales in 2022.
We spotted a story that, while not uncommon, has us scratching our head. The story is about yet another company in the oil and gas industry touting its conversion to electricity as a way to improve the climate and the company’s own ESG credibility. In this case, the company manufactures, fabricates, rents, sells, and maintains natural gas compression technology for oil and natural gas upstream providers and midstream facilities. Does the following strike you as odd?…
Oilfield services (OFS) companies are bouncing back. Oil and natural gas drilling is “ramping up as demand continues to hold on despite a global resurgence of coronavirus infections.” And that is “sweet music to the ears of oil-field services providers in the United States.” So says Dan Eberhart. He should know. Eberhart is CEO of Canary, one of the largest privately-owned OFS companies in the United States. He also serves as a consultant to the energy industry in North America, Asia, and Africa. Eberhart, writing on the Forbes website, says drilling and equipment contractors “are preparing for a multi-year upcycle on the back of recovering demand and rising commodity prices.”
Zenith Energy, based in Houston, TX and Metuchen, NJ, announced yesterday it has purchased the bulk terminal storage operations of Guttman Energy in three locations: Aurora, Ohio, Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania, and Star City, West Virginia. Zenith says the reason for buying the terminals is to support customers in the Marcellus/Utica. What, exactly, is Zenith selling to M-U customers?