Economic Impact

Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Shell | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Shell, One Other Company Close to Cracker Plant Announcement
December 7, 2011December 7, 2011

According to officials in West Virginia, who are super-serious about attracting at least one ethane cracker plant to their state, Shell and one other company will announce site selections for their plants in January of 2012. West Virginia fully intends that at least one of those two plants will be inside their borders, and they are pulling out all of the stops to ensure it happens. In fact, according to WV Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s chief of staff, it’s the newly-elected governor’s “No. 1 goal.”

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs

New Study Shows Economic Boom from Shale Gas in U.S.
December 6, 2011December 6, 2011

A new study just released shows that natural gas drilling and production will add 900,000 jobs and $1,000 to annual household budgets across the country, on average, by 2015. And shale gas production will go from adding $76 billion to U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) now, to $118 billion by 2015.

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Chesapeake Energy | Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Is Chesapeake’s Ethane Pipeline Deal a Negotiating Tactic?
November 10, 2011November 10, 2011

Last week, MDN reported that officials in West Virginia were angry with Chesapeake Energy over their decision to sign a contract to ship ethane out of the Marcellus region for processing in the Gulf Coast (see this MDN story). Specifically, state Commerce Secretary Keith Burdette said the deal may jeopardize the state’s chances of attracting a cracker plant—a facility that processes ethane into ethylene, the raw material used to make plastics. The chief complaint was that Chesapeake has been part of negotiations to bring such a plant to the region but at the same time were silent about their impending deal with Enterprise Products Partners to lease a pipeline to move ethane out of the area.

Chesapeake has responded to the criticism and says its deal with Enterprise has been “misunderstood.” A recent statement from Chesapeake seems to indicate the deal to ship ethane via pipeline is a negotiating tactic to get the best price for their ethane. Other industry sources are sticking up for Chesapeake and say the deal is certainly not a “cracker killer.”

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs

Oil and Gas Industry Leads the Way in U.S. Job Creation
November 10, 2011March 24, 2012

Quick…guess which industry has nine of the 11 fastest growing jobs in the U.S.? That’s right, the oil and gas industry. In fact, the six fastest growing jobs in the country for 2010-11 are all related to oil and gas extraction. In 2011, the o&g industry is projected to add 85,000 new jobs!

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Chesapeake Energy | Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pipelines | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Officials Angry with Chesapeake Over Ethane Pipeline Deal
November 7, 2011November 7, 2011

State officials in West Virginia are angry with Chesapeake Energy over the announcement that Chesapeake has signed a deal to ship ethane out of the Marcellus region via pipeline to the Gulf Coast for processing. A quick petrochemical lesson: Some of what comes out of the ground when drilling for natural gas is the chemical compound ethane—especially found in “wet gas” areas of the Marcellus like West Virginia. Ethane can be processed into ethylene, which is the raw material used to make plastics.

West Virginia and Pennsylvania have been heavily courting Shell and at least one other unnamed company to build a “cracker plant” to process the ethane (crack it) into ethylene. Building a cracker plant in the region would attract thousands of jobs and billions of initial investment, and billions in revenue from associated plastics industries that would sprout up around the plant. It’s like winning the biggest imaginable lottery jackpot when it comes to jobs, money and tax revenue.

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Kanawha County | West Virginia

Charleston WV Shows Community Support for Cracker Plant
November 4, 2011November 4, 2011

Residents of Charleston, WV want large energy companies looking to locate an ethane cracker plant in the Marcellus region to know that residents of Charleston want it and welcome it with open arms. An online letter-writing campaign has been launched to show community support for the project, which is estimated to bring more than 12,000 new jobs and some $7 billion in economic activity to the region where it’s built.

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs

PA Economist Says Shale Gas Only Way to Economic Recovery
November 3, 2011November 3, 2011

Edmond Seifried is professor emeritus of economics at Lafayette College in Easton, PA. He says that fiscal and monetary policy used by the Federal Reserve has not and will not work. He says that natural gas is not just the best, but the only way for the U.S. to recover from the current economic malaise.

Seifried points out the obvious: The less money we spend on foreign oil and invest in our own energy sources (in particular natural gas), the more the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will increase, meaning more jobs here at home, and more money that stays here in our country.

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Commodity Price | Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues

Natural Gas Now Least Expensive Way to Generate Electricity
November 2, 2011November 2, 2011

Jack Kelly had an excellent column in Sunday’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. It starts out with a brief history of the discovery of oil in the U.S. and moves to shale gas and points out that shale gas is an even bigger game changer than oil was. Did you know that natural gas is now the cheapest way of generating electricity?! Renewable sources like wind cost 1.5 times more, and solar costs 3.3 times more to produce the same megawatt of electricity as natural gas.

Among Jack’s observations:

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Commodity Price | Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Marcellus Shale Gas Leads to Lower Prices for PA Consumers
November 1, 2011November 1, 2011

One of the arguments in favor of shale gas drilling is that it will create more supply leading to lower prices for consumers (that’s Economics 101 for the Occupy economic illiterates). Those opposed to drilling scoff and say it won’t happen, that the big, bad energy companies will rig the system to keep prices, and profits, high. Here’s a dose of reality for those who scoff:

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Exelon CEO Says Shale Gas Competes with Chinese Nuclear Power
October 31, 2011October 31, 2011

Exelon Corp is the largest owner/operator of nuclear power plants in the United States. John Rowe, CEO of Exelon, said even though his company’s stock price is half what it was since 2008 largely because of the discovery and mining of shale gas, nevertheless, he’s a supporter of shale gas. While attending a conference in Philadelphia recently, he remarked:

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues

Who Owns U.S. Oil & Natural Gas Companies? You
October 28, 2011October 28, 2011

Who actually owns U.S. oil and natural gas companies? If you’re one of the economic illiterates in the “Occupy” movement, you no doubt believe the oil and gas industry is owned by “the 1 percent”. But you would be wrong. A new study just released proves the middle class (ie you) owns the vast majority of America’s energy companies via pension plans like 401(k)s and IRAs, as well as by individual stock investments. The numbers break down as follows: 50 percent of shares in energy companies are held by public and private pension plans, 20 percent by individual investors who own stock, 27 percent of shares belong to financial institutions and asset management companies, and 3 percent of outstanding shares are held by the officers and board members of the energy companies themselves.

The study, "Who Owns America’s Oil and Natural Gas Companies," was commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute and conducted by Sonecon. The full 22-page study is embedded below.

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Economic Impact | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Huge Shale Find in UK, Marcellus x 10?
October 26, 2011October 26, 2011

An interesting tidbit those of us in the U.S. can only salivate over… There is a shale formation in the U.K. that spreads all the way from North Wales (in the south of England) to near the Scottish border in Cumbria (in the north) and well over into Yorkshire as well. That is, it sits under most of the country. But here’s the unique thing about that shale deposit: A couple of exploratory wells drilled by British Gas found the thickness of the shale layer to be 3,000 feet! That is ginormous. By comparison, the Marcellus Shale layer is an average 300 feet thick. The UK shale layer is 10 times that amount. Meaning it holds perhaps 10 times the amount of shale gas as an equivalent section of the Marcellus.

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Public Opinion

Prize-Winning Author Says Fossil Fuels Not Going Away Soon
October 4, 2011October 4, 2011

Comments from a recent interview with Daniel Yergin, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and member of President Obama’s energy subcommittee examining shale gas (see MDN’s previous article about Yergin).

Mr. Yergin was interviewed by the Philadelphia Inquirer and had these observations:

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Statewide OH

Ohio Now in the Hunt for an Ethane Cracker
October 3, 2011October 3, 2011

You can add Ohio to both Pennsylvania and West Virginia on the official list of eastern states actively courting the investment of Shell and others who seek to build an multi-billion dollar ethane cracker plant.

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Public Opinion

Obama Advisor Says Shale Gas Drilling is Here to Stay
September 28, 2011September 27, 2011

Daniel Yergin, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and member of President Obama’s energy subcommittee examining shale gas, says the debate about whether or not to drill for shale gas is already over and decided—shall gas drilling is here to stay.

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues

Shale Gas and Chemical Industry Interconnected
September 21, 2011September 21, 2011

Yet more evidence of the importance, and the interconnectedness, of the shale gas industry and the plastics industry in the U.S. comes from none other than the American Chemistry Council. The ACC says that shale gas,

…will yield so much ethylene — the basic building block of plastics — that the United States will become the world’s lowest-cost source of feedstock in the world outside of the Persian Gulf.(1)

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