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Industrywide Issues | Jobs

Some Young People Bypass College for a Marcellus Shale Job
October 24, 2011October 24, 2011

A columnist in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette asks the question, “Should young people consider putting off college in order to work a job in the Marcellus Shale?” And the surprising answer is, “Maybe.” She recounts her random run-in with a young man in the Pittsburgh airport who was flying home to visit his parents, as he does regularly. His job? Laying pipeline in the Marcellus Shale. Her point was that in a time of economic uncertainty like we are in, putting off college for a while and working in the shale gas industry may be the right choice for some young people.

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Butler County | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Washington County

Marcellus Drilling Keeps Pumping Out Jobs in PA
October 3, 2011October 3, 2011

Yet more proof that Marcellus gas drilling is a jobs-creating machine in Pennsylvania, this time in western PA’s Butler and Washington counties:

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Broome County | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | New York | Statewide NY | Steuben County

New Drilling-Related Jobs Coming to NY Next Year
September 27, 2011September 27, 2011

When drilling finally starts in New York State, one of the immediate benefits to the state will be jobs. And not all of those jobs will be in the drilling industry. Some of them will be for the agency that oversees drilling in New York, the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).

The latest word is that the DEC is looking to hire an addition 142 workers starting next year, many of them in New York’s Southern Tier area where drilling will happen first.

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Chenango County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Madison County | New York | Norse Energy | Statewide NY

Norse Energy “Reduces” Employees by 50 Percent
September 21, 2011September 21, 2011

Early today, Norse Energy, a Norwegian company with gas drilling operations in New York State, issued an interesting press release about laying off half of their employees (see the full release below). Norse holds some 180,000 net acres of natural gas leases in New York, of which 130,000 are in the Marcellus and Utica Shale zones.

Until recently, Norse was using conventional vertical methods of drilling for natural gas in Upstate New York counties like Chenango and Madison. But Norse announced in early August that they are “betting the farm” that New York will adopt new regulations to allow shale gas drilling, and so they have focused the company on that prize. So much so they have filed the very first permits to drill in the Utica Shale in New York and have ceased all other kinds of gas drilling until it happens (see this MDN story).

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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 | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

New Penn State Study on Economic Impacts of Marcellus Drilling
September 7, 2011September 7, 2011

A new 62-page study (embedded below) conducted by Penn State and the Pennsylvania College of Technology looks at the economic impact of natural gas drilling in PA. The study, titled “Economic Impacts of Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania: Employment and Income in 2009,” uses a new (and according to the authors more accurate) methodology to calculate gas drilling’s economic impacts on local communities. The authors suggest the economic impacts of Marcellus drilling for local communities are not as big as previously reported.

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Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA

New Interstate Pipelines Mean Thousands of Jobs in PA
August 15, 2011August 15, 2011

Hundreds of miles of new interstate gas pipelines are on the way in Pennsylvania, and new pipeline construction is providing thousands of jobs in the state. The volume of Marcellus gas flowing from the Marcellus is projected to rise from a current 3 billion cubic feet (bcf) per day to 7 or 8 bcf per day in the next five years, which means more large interstate pipelines are required to get the gas to market.

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Invests $250K in Marcellus Ethane Processing Plant
August 12, 2011August 12, 2011

The state of West Virginia is investing $250K in a company that turns ethane from Marcellus gas wells into ethylene. Think of it as a “mini-cracker plant”. Shell and other large energy companies are looking to establish large cracker plants in the Marcellus region—a chemical plant that will take over $1 billion to build (see this MDN story). In the meantime, smaller and leaner companies are providing some of the same kinds of service a cracker plant provides—at much less of an investment. Aither Chemicals is one of those companies.

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Industrywide Issues | Jobs

Shale Gas Industry Continues to Add Jobs at Rapid Pace
August 10, 2011August 10, 2011

Even though the economy is in the dumper, the price for oil and gas is dropping and unemployment is at record highs, the natural gas industry—shale gas in particular—is adding jobs at a rapid pace. The entire energy sector including oil and gas is on track to add 200,000 jobs in 2011—an astonishing number given economic conditions.

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Industrywide Issues | Jobs

ACC Says Shale Gas will Produce 400K New Jobs in Chemical Industry
August 8, 2011August 8, 2011

In a letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal, Cal Dooley, president and CEO of the American Chemistry Council commented on the critically important (and huge) contribution shale gas drilling is having on the chemical industry in the United States. He said:

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Chesapeake Energy | Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon Talks to Jim Cramer About the Utica Shale in Eastern Ohio
August 2, 2011August 2, 2011

Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon on Monday appeared on Jim Cramer’s Mad Money show on CNBC to talk about the company’s new, oil-rich discovery in the Utica Shale of eastern Ohio. He had some fascinating things to say, including that he expects there to be some 25,000 wells drilled in the Ohio Utica Shale, and that there will be $10 billion per year for at least 20 years (or $200 billion) of investments in the Ohio Utica Shale alone. Yikes! No wonder Gov. John Kasich is “gushing” about Chesapeake’s discovery. An investment of 1/5 of a trillion dollars is a major big deal for Ohio—not only for landowners but also for businesses and for those who will be employed by drilling and associated industries. You cannot overstate how important this discovery is.

McClendon also says in the segment he believes the Utica Shale will be even bigger (production-wise, economic-wise) than the Eagle Ford Shale, with an estimated 25 billion barrels of oil equivalent in the form of oil, natural gas liquids and natural gas in eastern Ohio. McLendon says the Utica is possibly “one of our biggest discoveries in U.S. history.”

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Statewide OH | Utica Shale

Ohio Gov. John Kasich Jazzed About Chesapeake Striking Oil in the Utica Shale – Refers to Potential Out-of-State Workers as “Foreigners”
August 1, 2011August 1, 2011

Ohio’s Gov. John Kasich is jazzed about Chesapeake Energy’s announcement of striking oil in the Utica Shale in eastern Ohio. But he also has issued a warning to Chesapeake and other drillers about the makeup of the work crews who will be populating well pads:

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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

New Penn State Study: Marcellus Shale Drilling Created $11.2 Billion in Economic Activity & Supported 140K Jobs in PA in 2010
July 21, 2011July 21, 2011

A new report titled “The Pennsylvania Marcellus Natural Gas Industry: Status, Economic Impact, and Future Potential” was released yesterday by three Penn State University researchers. The report is the third in a series of economic forecasts from the same researchers and outlines the astonishing impact Marcellus Shale drilling has had and continues to have in Pennsylvania—generating $11.2 billion in economic activity in the state in 2010 and supporting nearly 140,000 jobs. The 68-page report was funded by the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry group based in PA (a full copy of the report is embedded below).

The report’s authors predict the Marcellus Shale play will become the nation’s leading supplier of natural gas by 2020, providing one quarter of all natural gas used in the U.S. A summary of the key findings in the report includes:

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Economic Impact | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | New York | Statewide NY

Public Policy Institute Predicts 62K New Jobs in NY State when Marcellus Drilling Moratorium is Lifted
July 19, 2011July 19, 2011

Public Policy Institute, Inc. (PPI), the research arm of The Business Council of New York State, has just released a new report titled “Drilling for Jobs: What the Marcellus Shale could mean for New York.” The 24-page report (see a full copy embedded below) takes a look at the huge opportunity in job growth that will be realized in New York State once the hydraulic fracturing moratorium is lifted.

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Bradford County | Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania

Two New Gas Powered Electrical Plants on the Way in PA – $1.6 Billion Investment
July 14, 2011July 14, 2011

Marcellus Shale gas in Pennsylvania is having an effect on electricity generation. Instead of building coal-fired plants to generate electricity, natural gas powered plants are now in the works. Specifically, two new plants will be built in the next few years—one in Lycoming County and another in Bradford County. Not only does it mean a $1.6 billion investment, it also means hundreds of construction jobs, a cleaner way of producing electricity, and ultimately lower electricity costs for 1.4 million PA residents.

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