Economic Impact

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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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Virginia | Warren County

Marcellus is “Game Changer” for New Electric Power Plants
September 20, 2011September 20, 2011

Dominion will build a huge, new 1,300-megawatt power plant in Virginia—and it will be powered by Marcellus Shale gas. Final regulatory approval for the plant will come sometime in 2012, and the construction will be completed by 2014. The fact that power generating companies are constructing new power plants that use natural gas as the sole fuel source signals an important shift in the energy picture for the U.S.

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Commodity Price | Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

Wind Farm Project Canceled Due to Cheap Marcellus Gas
September 19, 2011September 19, 2011

Those who oppose natural gas drilling do so because it threatens their ideology that renewable energy should be the only available option. Renewable energy supporters don’t seem to care that it costs 3-5 times more (that’s 300-500 percent more) for electricity from renewable sources than from fossil fuel sources. Rather than celebrate our good fortune in finding a cheap, abundant source of something that pollutes far less than other sources—shale gas—they attack it and claim it’s just as bad as the dirtiest coal. It’s sad, really.

Here’s yet another example of so-called renewables failing the economic test, an example sure to push some of the antis over the edge. It looks like the $1 billion Great Lakes offshore wind farm is yes, out of wind (bad pun intended). And the reason why it’s being canceled? Marcellus Shale gas—abundant, and cheap.

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Economic Impact | Industrialization | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | New York | Statewide NY

New Study Says Gas Drilling in NY Will Create 54K Jobs
September 8, 2011September 8, 2011

A private study on the socio-economic impacts shale gas drilling is projected to have in New York State shows hydraulic fracturing will create some 54,000 jobs and result in $2.5 billion in economic activity. The report, titled “Economic Assessment Report for the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement on New York State’s Oil, Gas, and Solution Mining Regulatory Program,” was commissioned by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and researched and written by Ecology and Environment Engineering, P.C. A full copy is embedded below.

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Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Shell

Shell Nears Decision on Where to Build $2B Cracker Plant
September 7, 2011September 7, 2011

Shell Oil is “nearing a decision” on where to build a multi-billion dollar ethylene cracker plant in the Marcellus region, and states in that region—specifically Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio—are aggressively competing to have the plant built in their state. (See MDN’s petrochemical primer for details on how shale gas drilling relates to the chemical industry).

The stakes are high indeed. The cost to build the plant will exceed $2 billion, and it’s estimated the plant will attract some $16 billion in associated industry expenditures and provide more than 17,000 jobs in those associated industries.

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Economic Impact | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Washington County

How Much Does it Cost to Drill a Single Marcellus Well? $7.6M
September 7, 2011September 7, 2011

A new 92-page study just released by the University of Pittsburgh (copy embedded below) takes a realistic look at the direct costs, and economic impacts, of drilling a single Marcellus Shale gas well. The study, called the “Economic Impact of the Value Chain of a Marcellus Shale Well,” looked in depth at an EQT-drilled well in Washington County, PA. Undergraduate and graduate students from Pitt found that a single well had direct costs of more than $7.6 million. Or think of it this way: More than $7.6 million is invested in a local community, on average, for each and every well drilled.

The costs to drill a well break down this way:

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