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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”
Energy Services | Halliburton | Industrywide Issues | Jobs

3rd Shoe Drops: Halliburton Lays Off Additional 2,600
April 22, 2015April 22, 2015

The third shoe has now dropped. On Monday we told you that Schlumberger has cut an additional 11,000 jobs–20,000 total now gone–from the payroll (see Schlumberger Cuts Another 11K Jobs, 15% of Workforce Gone in 4 Mos). Yesterday Baker Hughes cut an additional 3,500 jobs–10,500 now gone (see Baker Hughes Follows Schlumberger, Ups Layoffs to 17% of Workforce). Today? Halliburton has admitted instead of cutting 6,400 jobs as previously announced, they’ve actually cut 9,000 jobs…
Read More “3rd Shoe Drops: Halliburton Lays Off Additional 2,600”
Baker Hughes | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Jobs

Baker Hughes Follows Schlumberger, Ups Layoffs to 17% of Workforce
April 21, 2015April 21, 2015

It seems that unfortunately, Schlumberger’s second round of layoffs was an omen and indeed a predictor of things to come (see Schlumberger Cuts Another 11K Jobs, 15% of Workforce Gone in 4 Mos). After Schlumberger announced their new massive layoff, Baker Hughes followed suit and today added another 3,500 layoffs to the 7,000 previously announced (see Baker Hughes Announces 7,000 Layoffs Due to Low Oil Price). The new 10,500 number represents 17% of Baker Hughes’ workforce. Of course mixed up in this mess is the shotgun marriage–Baker Hughes is being forced to sell to Halliburton (see Halliburton & Baker Hughes Vote to Approve Shotgun Wedding). This morning Baker Hughes released their first quarter 2015 results, and the new layoffs news was embedded in that announcement…
Read More “Baker Hughes Follows Schlumberger, Ups Layoffs to 17% of Workforce”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Jobs

Steingraber: Only Jobs for Women in Fracking are Maid & Prostitute
April 21, 2015April 21, 2015

Yesterday we told you about Ithaca College’s Sandra Steingraber and how she approaches the weighty issues of shale drilling–by making things up (see Sandra Steingraber’s Irrational Hatred of Fossil Fuels Continues). On April 6th we told you that Steingraber was due to deliver a lecture at the University of Pittsburgh on fracking and feminism (see Funny! NY Fractivist Steingraber Says Fracking is a “Feminist Issue”). It seems Steingraber delivered just what radical feminists wanted to hear. Steingraber actually said this about the jobs generated by the drilling industry for women: “The jobs for women are ‘hotel maid’ and ‘prostitute’.” Steingraber maintains that fracking is a man’s world. Who knew Steingraber was such a sexist? Once again Sandra Steingraber makes things up out of her rather fertile imagination…
Read More “Steingraber: Only Jobs for Women in Fracking are Maid & Prostitute”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Schlumberger

Schlumberger Cuts Another 11K Jobs, 15% of Workforce Gone in 4 Mos
April 20, 2015April 20, 2015

Wow–it’s getting savage out there in the oil (and gas) fields with respect to jobs. In January we told you that Schlumberger (pronounced Shlum-Bur-Zhay), the world’s (and the U.S.’s) largest oilfield services company, cut 9,000 jobs from the company (see Schlumberger Firing 9,000 to Reduce Head Count, “Low Oil Prices”). Since that time, other companies like Halliburton and Baker Hughes (both competitors of Schlumberger) have cut 6,400 and 7,000 jobs respectively. Ouch. Looks like that was just getting the ax sharpened. Last Thursday Schlumberger announced another round of job cuts–this time 11,000. Analysts are predicting this is the opening round of more cuts to come from other companies, a so-called second round…
Read More “Schlumberger Cuts Another 11K Jobs, 15% of Workforce Gone in 4 Mos”
Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

NPR Admits Truth About PA Jobs in Marcellus Shale Industry
April 13, 2015April 13, 2015

Waaaiiiit just a minute. This isn’t supposed to happen! NPR telling the truth about shale jobs in Pennsylvania? Yep, it’s true–April Fool’s was a couple of weeks ago. No, it’s not the anti-drilling NPR “reporters” from Harrisburg and Philadelphia with StateImpact Pennsylvania who told the truth (wash your mouth out with soap!). It was a reporter with the national NPR organization. Jeff Brady has an article published on the Nevada Public Radio website which says, in essence, although the shale industry is seeing big layoffs, the jobs picture in Pennsylvania is still very positive. How positive? Some 98% of the kids graduating from one of PA’s training schools get jobs in the shale industry. Some of those jobs pay $70,000-$80,000 per year. There are currently (according to NPR) around 31,000 people employed directly in the shale industry in PA, with no signs of letting up. Tell us again how PA was such a disaster under Tom Corbett and how Marcellus jobs numbers “didn’t add up” (see Remarkable Change in PA Jobs Since Pro-Gas Corbett Lost Gov Race). After Corbett lost, it was OK for so-called mainstream media to start telling the truth about the jobs bounty in the PA Marcellus. It’s so obvious, you can’t deny it, and the reputation of mainstream sources like NPR was suffering because of their anti-drilling propaganda, so they had to (finally) admit it…
Read More “NPR Admits Truth About PA Jobs in Marcellus Shale Industry”
CNX Resources | CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

CONSOL Energy Lays Off Workers in CNX Gas Division in WV/PA
April 10, 2015April 10, 2015

UPDATE 4PM 4/10/15: A highly placed source tells MDN that the number of total layoffs in the gas division is 170, many of which happened today. The total number is just shy of 5% of CONSOL’s total workforce. Our thoughts and prayers go to those affected.

It’s not often that MDN gets to break news–but from scouring available news sources, we believe this is one of those times. Yesterday a long-time MDN reader phoned MDN to report that CONSOL Energy has begun, and is in the process of, a large round of layoffs in its CNX Gas division. The layoffs include personnel cuts in the following CONSOL locations: In WV there have been cuts in the Jane Lew and Bluefield offices; and in PA, cuts have been made (or will be made) in the Waynesburg, Indiana, and Canonsburg offices. We must stress this is second-hand information. We believe our source, but we do not have confirmation of cuts in all of those locations. Our source told us he had once worked in the Jane Lew office when that operation was part of Dominion (prior to CONSOL taking it over) and that someone he once worked with in that office–a woman who’s worked in that office/operation for 28 years–was just given her pink slip. So our source has an inside track on the situation. However, it’s always best to get confirmation, so MDN contacted CONSOL via email to ask for confirmation (or denial) and this is what CONSOL said…
Read More “CONSOL Energy Lays Off Workers in CNX Gas Division in WV/PA”
Brooke County | Economic Impact | Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Regulation | West Virginia

Brooke County, WV Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant Plan Advances
April 6, 2015April 5, 2015

A month ago MDN brought you the big news that the father and son team building a $615 million, 549 megawatt electrical generating plant near Moundsville, WV that will be powered by Marcellus Shale gas are planning to build three more of them–all in West Virginia (see Big News: 3 More Marcellus-Powered Electric Plants Coming to WV). Two of the three new plants will, if built, be located in Brooke County, WV. Last month the Brooke County Commission signed two memorandums of understanding with Energy Solutions Consortium (father and son Andrew and Matthew Dorn) to agree to a plan to let the Dorns build the plants and then sell them to the county, leasing them back to run them–a plan called a PILOT plan, or “payment in lieu of taxes.” The plan allows the Dorns to avoid paying prohibitively high property taxes on the plants while still generating a big, fat payment to the county and local school district. Last week the local board of education and town council also signed on to the plan, an important next step in making the project a reality…
Read More “Brooke County, WV Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant Plan Advances”
Alternative Energy | Dominion Energy | Economic Impact | Electrical Generation | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Jobs

Virginia’s Largest Electric Plant to be Powered by Marcellus Gas
March 27, 2015March 27, 2015

Yesterday Dominion, a huge natural gas and electric utility as well as a midstream company, announced plans to build the State of Virginia’s largest natural gas powered electric generating plant–in Greensville County, VA. (By the way, Dominion won the Award for Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility at the Northeast Oil & Gas Awards on Wednesday in Pittsburgh. Well done!) The $1 billion project will produce 1,600 megawatts of electricity using combined-cycle technology–enough electricity to power 400,000 homes. Dominion will use Marcellus Shale gas to power the plant, provided by Williams’ Transco pipeline. The plant will also be fed by a second Marcellus Shale pipeline–Dominion’s own Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a $5 billion, 550-mile pipeline slated to run from West Virginia through Virginia and into to North Carolina (see Dominion Commits to Major New Marcellus/Utica Pipeline Project). Between just these two projects, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Greensville County electric plant, Dominion is pumping an astounding $6 billion into the economy of the Mid-Atlantic region, made possible by the miracle of fracking and the amazing Marcellus Shale. In addition to building the natgas-powered electric plant, Dominion also plans to build a large-scale solar project at the Greensville County site, which will make so-called environmentalists happy. Perhaps a spoonful of solar sugar will help the natgas medicine go down–in a most delightful way…
Read More “Virginia’s Largest Electric Plant to be Powered by Marcellus Gas”
Columbia Pipeline Group | Economic Impact | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Marshall County | Pipelines | West Virginia

More Love for the Leach Xpress Pipeline — in Marshall County, WV
March 27, 2015March 27, 2015

Gotta love the Leach. On Monday, MDN told you that Noble County, OH is in love with the Leach XPress Pipeline (see Noble County, OH in Love with the Leach Xpress Pipeline). The pipeline is being built by Columbia Pipeline Group and will begin in Marshall County, West Virginia, cross Ohio and end up in Leach, Kentucky. Leach Xpress will pay out $6.2 million in yearly property taxes in Noble County, hence the lovefest. Another place they love the Leach is in nearby Marshall County, WV. Marshall County will see $2.3 million per year in property taxes from the Leach and create (while it’s being built) 955 new jobs in the county providing a $67.5 million bump in economic stimulus to the county. What’s not to love about the Leach?!…
Read More “More Love for the Leach Xpress Pipeline — in Marshall County, WV”