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Carroll County | Economic Impact | Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Utica Shale

$800M Utica Gas-Fired Electric Plant Breaks Ground in Carroll Cnty
July 22, 2015July 22, 2015

Exactly two years ago this month MDN brought you news that Carroll County Energy in Carroll County, OH–a subsidiary of Advanced Power Services–would spend $800 million to build a new 700-megawatt natural gas electric generating plant in the county to be fed by Utica Shale gas (see New NatGas Powered Electric Plant Coming to Carroll County, OH). It took a while, but yesterday officials held the official ground-breaking ceremony for the plant. Over the next 30 months Advance will create some 700 “temporary” jobs to build the plant–and when it goes live, the plant will employ 25-30 permanent full-time employees…
Read More “$800M Utica Gas-Fired Electric Plant Breaks Ground in Carroll Cnty”
Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Bill Gives Tax Breaks to “Downstream” Natgas Businesses
July 21, 2015July 21, 2015

Here’s a cool idea: What if Pennsylvania granted 10 years of tax breaks to businesses that use shale gas and create at least 10 new jobs within three years? And what if those tax breaks for businesses were available in PA’s more rural areas–not the big cities? In other words, what if PA created more “downstream” jobs–jobs in manufacturing? Sure sounds like a winner to us. PA State Senator Scott Hutchinson (Republican from Oil City) has introduced Senate Bill (SB) 886 that would do just those things–turning PA into a jobs-creating powerhouse in the downstream sector…
Read More “PA Bill Gives Tax Breaks to “Downstream” Natgas Businesses”
CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | M&A | Noble Energy

Rumors Circulate that CONSOL May Sell Itself to Noble Energy
July 17, 2015July 17, 2015

MDN doesn’t do this (too) often, but we’re going to engage in a little Friday idle speculation. A tad bit of rumor mongering. So take this for what’s it worth. MDN has a contact in the Pittsburgh region that tells us that *all* of CONSOL Energy’s field engineers received an email at 3:30 am–this morning–requesting that they report to the center in Canonsburg, PA to discuss dismissal packages. Our contact says CONSOL’s plan is to lay down the rest of their active drilling rigs as soon as existing wells are completed and that they will not drill any new wells for the next 18 months. The really big bombshell is this: rumors are swirling that CONSOL’s CNX gas division is getting ready to sell itself to Noble Energy…
Read More “Rumors Circulate that CONSOL May Sell Itself to Noble Energy”
CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Jobs

CONSOL Slashes 10% of Workforce – 470 Jobs Gone
July 15, 2015July 15, 2015

We have an update on the sad news we first reported yesterday–that CONSOL Energy has made another round of layoffs (see CONSOL Energy Swings the Ax Again – New Round of Layoffs). We now have numbers to share. CONSOL is laying off approximately 10% of its entire workforce–290 jobs (i.e. people) gone in its gas and corporate operations, and 180 jobs (i.e. people) gone in its Pennsylvania coal mines. That’s 470 families facing a major economic crisis with the loss of a job. What does Wall Street do? They pop the cork and celebrate–more cash in their pockets–driving CONSOL’s stock price higher. These cuts come just three months after CONSOL previously laid off 170 people in April (see CONSOL Energy Lays Off Workers in CNX Gas Division in WV/PA). That’s a grand total of 640 people gone in the past three months. CONSOL’s comment? “These are very difficult but prudent decisions given the depressed nature of commodity prices”…
Read More “CONSOL Slashes 10% of Workforce – 470 Jobs Gone”
CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Jobs

CONSOL Energy Swings the Ax Again – New Round of Layoffs
July 14, 2015July 14, 2015

In April MDN was the first source to break the news that CONSOL Energy was laying off nearly 5% of its workforce, including 170 lost jobs in its CNX gas division (see CONSOL Energy Lays Off Workers in CNX Gas Division in WV/PA). Barley three months later and CONSOL has swung the ax again. We don’t know how many layoffs there have been (CONSOL won’t say), but according to the Pittsburgh Business Times, a new round of layoffs has begun…
Read More “CONSOL Energy Swings the Ax Again – New Round of Layoffs”
Commodity Price | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Research

EIA: Oil & Gas Jobs Plunge 6 Months After Oil Price Plunge
June 24, 2015June 24, 2015

Our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, has authored an excellent article about how jobs in the oil and gas sector lag behind oil price gyrations. That is, once the price of oil drops to a certain level, it takes a while before jobs in the sector start to disappear. Which makes sense. Oil (and gas) prices are cyclical–they go up, they down, they go up again. It’s always been that way. When prices tank, companies don’t immediately layoff people–it take a few months of wait and see to see if prices will recover. If they don’t recover within a few months? That’s when layoffs start to happen, and the statistics show it. A startling statistic included in the EIA story below: on-shore rig counts hit a new low for the week ending June 19–54% below the same point a year ago. It’s the lowest rig count level in nearly six years. While you can’t say “half the rigs, half the number of jobs,” you can say “half the rigs means a whole lotta jobs are now, 12 months later, gone”…
Read More “EIA: Oil & Gas Jobs Plunge 6 Months After Oil Price Plunge”
Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Regulation | Research

API Study Shows Energy Regulations are Killing Jobs & Economy
June 24, 2015June 24, 2015

The American Petroleum Institute (API) released a new study yesterday authored by Wood Mackenzie, a global research firm, which compares government policies that promote the growth of the energy industry with government policies that stifle energy growth. The study, titled “A Comparison of US Oil and Natural Gas Policies: Pro-development Policies vs. Proposed Regulatory Constraints” (full copy embedded below) finds that the study found that unnecessarily restrictive energy and environmental regulations proposed by the Obama administration will lead to 830,000 lost jobs and a decrease of $133 billion per year in the U.S. economy. In other words, Obama is ruining this country with his energy/environmental policies…
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Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

How the Wolf Administration is Cooking the Marcellus Jobs Numbers
June 19, 2015June 19, 2015

Wow, did MDN peg it right or what? Yesterday we told you that Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration/gang had politically, arbitrarily, rejiggered the Marcellus Shale industry employment numbers, dumping 151,000 jobs credited to the industry, in an attempt to smear the “brand” of the Marcellus as a jobs creator in the minds of Pennsylvanians (see Gov Wolf & Co Wipes Away 151K PA Jobs by Changing Formula). Our view was confirmed by a former Corbett administration official who exposes this numbers change-up for what it is: 100% political and 100% the work of the Wolf administration. Writing in the Harrisburg Patriot-News, Dennis Roddy calls out the Dept. of Labor and Industry for bowing to political pressure from the Wolf gang and arbitrarily changing the formula used to track direct, indirect and induced jobs from the Marcellus–a jobs formula accepted by economists across the country and a formula the Dept. of Labor and Industry themselves devised–not one devised by the Corbett administration…
Read More “How the Wolf Administration is Cooking the Marcellus Jobs Numbers”
Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Gov Wolf & Co Wipes Away 151K PA Jobs by Changing Formula
June 18, 2015June 18, 2015

Poof! Some 151,000 jobs that had been created by the Marcellus Shale industry, according to Pennsylvania officials, disappeared overnight. PA Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration (Republican), voted out of office last November, used to say (based on numbers from the PA Dept. of Labor and Industry) that the Marcellus Shale industry is responsible for creating 240,000 jobs in the state (see Hundreds of Thousands of Marcellus Drilling Jobs in PA). That number includes people in other industries that serve the Marcellus industry. PA Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration (Democrat) now comes along to say that number is bunkum. Wolf and his minions want to lower the public’s perception that the Mighty Marcellus is a jobs-creating engine like nothing ever seen in the state–so they’ve just arbitrarily wiped off 151,000 of those jobs by saying the way the number was originally calculated was wrong. They say the “real” number is more like 89,000. Welcome to Wonderland where you have your truth and I have my truth and the only casualty is THE truth…
Read More “Gov Wolf & Co Wipes Away 151K PA Jobs by Changing Formula”
Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pennsylvania | Supply Chain | Susquehanna County

Drilling Slowdown Creates Domino Effect in Susquehanna County, PA
June 18, 2015June 18, 2015

Low natural gas prices and lack of pipelines is affecting more than just the drillers in Susquehanna County, PA–it’s also affecting landowners, gas workers, and the businesses that depend on all of the above. Drillers in northeastern PA (as well as elsewhere) are laying down their drilling rigs. Fewer rigs means fewer new wells being drilled, meaning no royalties for those landowners. And it means fewer jobs for workers, and less business for companies that provide goods and services to drillers, the people who work for them, and landowners with less disposable income. A TV station in NEPA shines a light on the situation in Susquehanna County…
Read More “Drilling Slowdown Creates Domino Effect in Susquehanna County, PA”
Bradford County | Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania

NEPA Tungsten Plant Begins Converting Marcellus Gas into Hydrogen
June 18, 2015June 18, 2015

This is the story of how abundant and cheap Marcellus Shale gas is helping to secure the jobs of 550 people in Bradford County, PA, people who work in a business that has nothing to do with the Marcellus Shale industry. Yesterday, Global Tungsten & Powders Corp. in Towanda, PA held a ribbon cutting ceremony for a new piece of equipment at the company’s plant that will convert Marcellus Shale gas, extracted locally, into hydrogen used in enormous quantities at the plant. The Global Tungsten plant in Towanda is one of the country’s largest users of hydrogen (who knew?). The company uses hydrogen to manufacture tungsten products at the plant, including components for solid oxide fuel cells (i.e., big batteries). Until now, liquid hydrogen has had to be trucked to the plant daily, from hundreds (even thousands) of miles away. The new equipment unveiled yesterday, which will be owned and operated by Air Products, will provide 80-90% of the plant’s hydrogen needs. Just one more way this evil, nasty fossil fuel called Marcellus Shale gas is benefiting Pennsylvanians (jobs and economy) AND making the planet a better/safer/greener place to live…
Read More “NEPA Tungsten Plant Begins Converting Marcellus Gas into Hydrogen”
Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Research

Manhattan Institute Report Says Shale 2.0 Just Getting Started
June 15, 2015June 15, 2015

The New York-based Manhattan Institute, a non-profit think tank with a mission “to develop and disseminate new ideas that foster greater economic choice and individual responsibility,” released a new report in May titled, “Shale 2.0: Technology and the Coming Big-Data Revolution in America’s Shale Oil Fields” (full copy embedded below). The report explores and debunks the current meme coming from mainstream media, Saudi Arabia and other opponents of shale energy that with the current low price climate shale energy in the U.S. is done…fini…kaput. Mark Mills, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and author of the paper, says Shale 1.0 is now done, having run it’s course. But we’re still very early in the game and Shale 2.0 is just getting started. And oh, the (economic) places Shale 2.0 will take us!…
Read More “Manhattan Institute Report Says Shale 2.0 Just Getting Started”
Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Research

Fracking Shale Will Spur Another 462K Plastics Jobs Next 10 Yrs
May 14, 2015May 14, 2015

Economists at the American Chemistry Council have just published a new report called “The Rising Competitive Advantage of U.S. Plastics” in which they state over the next 10 years U.S. jobs related to plastics manufacturing are expected to grow by 462,000. Why? Because of plentiful and affordable natural gas and natural gas liquids from shale. A decade ago the U.S. was one of the world’s highest cost producers of plastics. Today, because of shale, we’re one of the lowest cost producers. And it gets better every year. More and more manufacturing plants are relocating to the U.S. to take advantage of a cheap supply of plastics and low cost natural gas, made possible by shale energy. Plastics materials makers pay workers on average nearly $85,000 per year. Made possible by the miracle of fracking…
Read More “Fracking Shale Will Spur Another 462K Plastics Jobs Next 10 Yrs”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Guernsey County | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Pipelines

Marcellus/Utica Welder by Day, Prostitute by Night?
May 1, 2015May 1, 2015

MDN told you about the outrageous comments by Sandra Steingraber (from Ithaca College) in her address to a group of “feminists” in Pittsburgh last week (see Steingraber: Only Jobs for Women in Fracking are Maid & Prostitute). The obviously sexist Steingraber said this about jobs for women in the shale industry: “The jobs for women are ‘hotel maid’ and ‘prostitute’.” So when we spotted an article about a female welding instructor at Zane State College in Cambridge, OH–and how she trains both men AND women for welding jobs in the oil and gas industry (jobs that after a year or so on the job fetch a salary of $150,000), we thought we would share it with you. And no–the female welding instructor and her students are not a prostitutes by night. The headline was just a shameless ploy to draw you in and encourage you to read the article about these gutsy women doing hard, physical work in what Steingraber calls a “man’s world”…
Read More “Marcellus/Utica Welder by Day, Prostitute by Night?”
Belmont County | Economic Impact | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Processing Plants

Belmont County Elated with Cracker Plant Announcement (Drip)
April 24, 2015April 24, 2015

We hate to rain on Belmont County, OH’s parade, but we have to point out their celebration over the announcement about a potential ethane cracker plant announced on Wednesday may be a bit premature (see It’s Official: Belmont County Chosen as POSSIBLE Cracker Plant Site). Yes, we’re super excited at the prospect of a cracker plant getting built somewhere in the northeast–and if it’s this one, to be built by Thailand and Japan, we’ll be as elated as the officials in Belmont County are (see below). However, we would like to point them to Beaver County, PA, about an hour’s drive across the border, where local officials there have been waiting for more than three years for Shell to get off the pot with a project to build a cracker plant there. Elation–when it comes to these cracker plant projects–sooner or later turns into concern, and eventually into dimmed and elusive hope. The one thing Belmont County CAN celebrate is that the company proposing to possibly build the cracker plant in the county will spend around $150 million to evaluate the site first–so at least the county will get a bit of an economic bump from that…
Read More “Belmont County Elated with Cracker Plant Announcement (Drip)”
Belmont County | Economic Impact | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Processing Plants

It’s Official: Belmont County Chosen as POSSIBLE Cracker Plant Site
April 23, 2015April 23, 2015

As we told you Tuesday, Ohio is now squarely in the ethane cracker race (see Rumor: Ohio Cracker Plant Announcement Coming This Week). As predicted, yesterday Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Belmont County, OH officials announced a pair of companies from Thailand and Japan were partnering with the aim of building an ethane cracker plant in Belmont County (see the announcement below). It is a $5 billion project, according to media reports–larger than the price tag for both the possible Shell ethane cracker in Beaver County, PA and the Odebrect ethane cracker/petrochemical facility in Parkersburg, WV–which is now on pause (see Odebrect Pushes the Pause Button on WV Ethane Cracker). Speaking of which–you may now color us skeptical and jaded that any of these projects, including the one in Ohio, will ever get built…
Read More “It’s Official: Belmont County Chosen as POSSIBLE Cracker Plant Site”