MDN friend Tom Shepstone (from Energy in Depth) has a viewpoint article in today’s Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin. Titled “Best hope for N.Y. economy is gas drilling,” Tom makes a strong case for Marcellus drilling in New York. Among the eye-opening facts he brings to light, Tom points out:
Read More “The Best Economic Hope for NY? Marcellus Gas Drilling”
A regional economic development group made up of officials from Blair, Cambria, Somerset, Huntingdon, Fulton and Bedford counties in Pennsylvania is asking the state for a $700,000 grant to help them help businesses located in the southern Allegheny region identify new business opportunities in the shale gas drilling industry. The group hopes that their geography, strategically located between PA’s northeastern and southwestern Marcellus gas fields, will bring new business to the area, and along with that new business, more jobs.
Read More “PA Counties Band Together for Grant to Create Marcellus Jobs”
Although historically low natural gas prices are great for consumers, it’s not so great for some in the shale gas drilling industry. Because drillers are changing their focus away from drilling in the “dry gas” areas of the Marcellus Shale play and instead focusing on the “wet gas”—or liquids-rich—portion of the play, it causes a slow down for some businesses and leads to layoffs in certain industries, like title searching. Title searches of property deeds are a necessary part of acquiring leases for drilling.
A title search company in western PA has just laid off nearly half of their staff:
Read More “Dry Gas Drilling Slowdown Results in Layoffs in PA”
Washington County in southwestern Pennsylvania has been named the third highest county in the country in job growth, due mostly to Marcellus Shale drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Not only that, but residents have seen an average increase of 8.8 percent in their wages.
Read More “Washington County, PA Jobs & Wages Skyrocket from Marcellus”
The Ohio Shale Coalition released a new economic study yesterday prepared researchers from Cleveland State University, Ohio State University and Marietta College. The study projects annual production of oil and gas from the Utica Shale in the state will reach $9.6 billion by 2014 along with an eye-popping 65,000+ jobs. And those jobs will have an average salary of more than $50,000 per year, adding an additional $3.3 billion in labor income in the state. Both a high level overview and a copy of the full 81-page report are embedded below. (MDN is honored to have scored a few mentions in the “News Articles and Web Sources” section of the study.)
MDN particularly likes this graphic from page 39 showing net acreage leaseholds held by drilling companies:
Read More “New Study Predicts 65K Jobs in Ohio by 2014 from Utica Shale”
Baker Hughes is planning to build a $64 million facility in Massillon (Stark County), Ohio. The announcement comes just a month after Baker Hughes announced they are building a new $40 million facility in Harrison County, West Virginia (see this MDN story). The company plans to employ 700 people at the Massillon facility when it’s done (in three years), at an average hourly wage of $31.25. The economic impact in eastern Ohio will be profound.
Read More “Baker Hughes to Build $64M Facility in Ohio; Create 700 Jobs”
More jobs coming courtesy of shale gas drilling—this time in Youngstown, Ohio. Exterran Energy Solutions has just announced plans to build a new $13 million facility that when done, will provide 100+ new jobs earning an average $23 per hour.
Read More “Youngstown, OH Scores Another 100 Jobs from Gas Drilling”
Yet more drilling-related jobs on the way, this time in northern West Virginia. The West Virginia Northern Community College is teaming up with Dominion Natrium to train up to 100 local residents to be pipefitters to work at the Natrium processing plant.
Read More “WV Residents to Get Free Pipefitter Training for Gas Jobs”
Dennis Heller is a small business owner—president and CEO of Stephenson Equipment in Harrisburg, PA. Stephenson Equipment employs 120 people selling and renting construction equipment and crane services, parts, and operator training at seven locations in Pennsylvania and New York. Heller recently testified at a U.S. House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee Energy & Mineral Resources Subcommittee field hearing in Steubenville, Ohio, on the impact of shale energy development and what it means for small businesses (a copy of his testimony is embedded below).
Read More “Congressional Hearing: Shale Energy a “Game Changer” for Small Biz”
Which jobs are hot and which are not? That’s the question raised in a recent Pittsburgh Tribune-Review article. At number three on the “hot” list is the natural gas industry.
Read More “Shale Gas on the Western PA Hot Jobs List, Solar Not Hot”
Pennsylvania CareerLink announced they are offering a training program for those interested in working as roustabouts in the shale gas drilling industry for free for 20 people. The four- to six-week training course normally costs $2,500.
Read More “PA CareerLink Offers Free Training to Work in Drilling”
Looking to land a job in the Marcellus Shale drilling industry? You’re not alone. According to Mike Forgione, a representative from the PA Institute of High Priority Occupations, there are a number of jobs available, including:
The executive director of the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Association, Rhonda Reda, predicts that oil and gas drilling rigs will increase 300% in the next five years, and those rigs will create new jobs to operate them:
Read More “OH Drilling Rigs Expected to Increase 300% in Next 5 Years”
Looking for a way to participate in the Marcellus and Utica Shale economic boom? As an investor, or as a business owner or even as a job seeker, you might want to consider water. Yeah, water. Try these numbers on for size: In 2011, drillers paid somewhere between $1.3-$1.7 billion to dispose of fracking wastewater in the Marcellus Shale. In 10 years it’s estimated to be a $15-$22 billion market—just in the Marcellus Shale.
Read More “Start a Company or Get a Job in the Marcellus? Try Water”
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.
Read More “Obama Takes Credit for Shale Gas Drilling in Election Year”
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.
Read More “Obama State of the Union: Safe Fracking will Create 600K Jobs”