Economic Impact

Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Steuben County | Tioga County (PA)

RailAmerica Buys Wellsboro & Corning Short Line Railroad
February 3, 2012February 3, 2012

One of the interesting but often-overlooked stories of the rapid growth of Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling is the revival of short line railroads. As drillers enter an area, equipment and materials need to be shipped to that area. Sand, especially, is used in large quantities, and short lines are the most economical way of getting sand to an active drilling area.

One of the short line railroads to came roaring back to life not so long ago is the Wellsboro and Corning Railroad (WCOR), running from Wellsboro in northeastern PA to just across the border connecting to Corning, NY.

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Economic Impact | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Regulation

Obama Takes Credit for Shale Gas Drilling in Election Year
January 27, 2012January 27, 2012

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed earlier this week (We Don’t Need More Foreign Oil and Gas), Obama supporters and long-time Democrat flacks John Podesta and Tom Steyer tried to make the argument that we don’t need Canada’s oil (and natural gas) because we now have enough of our own, thank you very much. Apparently Obama is getting heat for his disastrous decision to pander to environmental extremists and reject the Keystone XL pipeline that would not only have brought cheap Canadian oil to the U.S. (at a time of record-highs for oil), but also would have brought more U.S. oil to the U.S. from North Dakota’s Bakken field.

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Statewide OH | Statewide PA

Ohio vs. West Virginia in the Cracker Plant Sweepstakes
January 26, 2012January 26, 2012

West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio wait on pins and needles for Shell to announce which state they have chosen as a site to build a new $1.5-$2.0 billion ethane cracker plant, each of them looking for an edge to ensure their state is selected. WV Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin is flying to Houston this week to meet with representatives of Shell to make a personal pitch that West Virginia should be that place, with a promise of no property taxes on the plant for 25 years if they do so. Thing is, Ohio Gov. John Kasich has already been to Houston to pitch his state—two months ago. Does that give Ohio an edge?

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Economic Impact | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Regulation

Obama State of the Union: Safe Fracking will Create 600K Jobs
January 25, 2012January 25, 2012

Last night, President Barack Obama delivered his State of the Union address to Congress. Energy and natural gas played a big role in the speech. In particular, Obama acknowledges the jobs-generating power of natural gas drilling, saying it can generate 600,000 jobs by the end of this decade. He also mandated a requirement that gas drillers on public lands disclose the chemicals they use. (Disclosing fracking chemicals is already the law in five states and mostly enforced in a sixth—see this MDN story).

Obama said the U.S. has enough natural gas to last us 100 years and that he’s going to “take every possible action” to develop it. He also reaffirmed his belief in global warming.

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Commodity Price | Economic Impact | Exporting | Industrywide Issues

EIA Issues Early Release Summary of Annual Energy Outlook
January 24, 2012January 24, 2012

Yesterday, the U.S. Energy Information Association (EIA) issued the 2012 Annual Energy Outlook (AEO2012) Early Release Reference case, which provides updated projections for U.S. energy markets through 2035 (a copy is embedded below). This Early Release Overview assumes no changes in current laws and regulations and is the prelude to the full AEO due out this spring. The AEO provides a comprehensive snapshot of the entire energy picture for the U.S. in particular, but in the wider context of world energy supplies. It is relied on by the government, politicians and the energy industry.

Among the observations and predictions in the Early Release for natural gas:

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Washington County (OH)

Mini-Economic Boom from Pipeline Workers in Marietta, OH
January 23, 2012January 23, 2012

Local pipeline work in the Marietta (Washington County), Ohio area has brought an influx of pipeline workers from out of town. Along with those workers has come a mini-economic boom for Marietta with money being spent at local RV parks, grocery stories, restaurants and other area businesses.

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Baker Hughes | Economic Impact | Frac Tech | Halliburton | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Schlumberger

Record-Breaking 19K New Wells to be Fracked in 2012
January 23, 2012January 23, 2012

Hydraulic fracturing, the process used to break apart shale rock deep below the earth’s surface to allow natural gas and oil to flow, will increase in 2012 some 19 percent from last year according to Spears & Associates, a research and consulting company for the worldwide petroleum industry. Almost 19,000 new wells will be fracked in 2012, compared with 16,000 in 2011. Halliburton is the largest U.S. fracking services provider with 18 percent of the market.

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Caiman Energy | Economic Impact | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Marshall County | Processing Plants | West Virginia

Caiman Energy Investing $1.3B in Midstream Facilities in WV
January 20, 2012January 20, 2012

Caiman Energy plans to bring its total investment in natural gas processing (“midstream”) facilities in Marshall County, WV to $1.3 billion by the end of 2014. At midstream processing plants like the ones operated by Caiman, raw natural gas is processed to separate out methane from other components like ethane, propane, butane and pentane, or “natural gas liquids.” The liquids are sent to another facility for fractionation, to separate them from one another. Ethane then goes to a cracker plant where it is “cracked” or transformed into ethylene, used for making plastics.

Caiman is expanding its current processing facilities and building a new fractionation facility in Marshall County and spending nearly as much on their projects ($1.3 billion) as the much anticipated cracker plant that will be built by Shell somewhere in the Marcellus Shale region ($1.5-$2.0 billion).

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Lackawanna County | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania

Passenger Increase at WB/Scranton Airport from Gas Drilling
January 20, 2012January 20, 2012

There are many positive economic effects from shale gas drilling on nearby communities. Hotels and motels are some of the first to feel the effects, and restaurants. Grocery stores see an increase, as well as stores that sell clothes and shoes and other supplies. Short-line railroads also see a pickup in business from hauling materials, especially sand.

You can also add airports to the list of those organization that see a positive impact from shale gas drilling. The latest example: the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport has seen an uptick in passengers in the past year, due to Marcellus Shale gas drilling.

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Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Processing Plants | Shell

New Timeline for Shell Cracker Plant Announcement
January 19, 2012January 19, 2012

MDN has extensively covered Shell’s plan to build a $1.5-$2.0 billion ethane cracker plant somewhere in the Marcellus region (see MDN’s previous coverage here). A cracker plant “cracks” ethane, a component of raw natural gas, into ethylene, a raw material used to manufacture plastics. West Virginia has been perhaps the most vocal and energetic of prospective locations in their efforts to attract Shell’s investment inside their borders. But Ohio and Pennsylvania are also making a serious effort to attract it as well.

Until now, the word was that Shell would likely make their announcement in mid- to late January. The timeline has apparently changed to be mid- to late February, according to West Virginia officials who remain jazzed about their possibilities in winning the cracker plant sweepstakes.

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues

Shale Gas Leads to 50% Drop in Wholesale Electricity Prices
January 18, 2012January 18, 2012

An article in Bloomberg Businessweek takes a look at the profound impact shale gas is having on the cost of energy in the United States. One of the biggest eye-poppers in the article: The average price of wholesale electricity has dropped 50 percent on average since 2008. Why? Because electrical generating plants are switching from other forms of producing electricity to using natural gas to produce electricity.

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Processing Plants | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Gov. Tomblin Proposes 25-Year Tax Break for Cracker Plant
January 17, 2012March 24, 2012

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin has sent proposed new legislation to lawmakers asking for a 25-year break from business property taxes for any company investing at least $2 billion to build an ethane cracker plant in the state. There is a bidding war going on among West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania to attract the plant, a facility that processes ethane from shale gas drilling into ethylene, a raw material used to make plastics.

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Statewide PA

The Two Faces of Sen. Robert Casey (D-PA) on Shale Drilling
January 16, 2012January 16, 2012

U.S. Sen. Robert Casey (Democrat, Pennsylvania) has been an outspoken critic of fracking and Marcellus shale gas drilling. He introduced and is lead sponsor of legislation in the Senate called the FRAC Act—Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals (see this MDN story). The title sounds nice with words like “responsibility” and “awareness” in it, but in reality the FRAC Act is a massive power transfer, stripping the right to regulate oil and gas drilling from the individual states and handing it over to the Environmental Protection Agency in the federal government. It’s bad legislation that would gut oil and gas drilling in the United States.

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Kanawha County | West Virginia

Another New Entrant in the Ethane Cracker Plant Sweepstakes
January 13, 2012January 13, 2012

A new entrant has entered the ethane cracker plant sweepstakes, this one claiming they can build a cracker plant for one-third of the cost of others. Earlier this week, Keith Pauley, president and chief executive officer of the Mid-Atlantic Technology, Research & Innovation Center (MATRIC) said that MATRIC has launched a subsidiary company, Aither Chemicals, to leverage “off patent” technology created by Union Carbide in the 1970s that will make building an ethane cracker plant much less expensive than competing technologies.

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Baker Hughes | Economic Impact | Energy Services | Harrison County | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | West Virginia

Baker Hughes Expands in WV, Sets Sights on the Marcellus
January 13, 2012January 13, 2012

Baker Hughes, one of the world’s largest oilfield and shale gas service companies, is building a new $40 million facility in Harrison County, West Virginia, and along with it, generating 275 new jobs. According to Baker Hughes president Paul Butero, the company plans to become a “major player” in the Marcellus Shale.

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Economic Impact | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

White House Credits Marcellus & Fracking for Economic Boom
January 12, 2012January 12, 2012

Yesterday, the White House released a report titled “Investing in America: Building an Economy that Lasts” (a copy of is embedded below). The report credits the Marcellus Shale and fracking with fueling an economic boom in the U.S.

The relevant section says this:

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