Pittsburgh Oilfield Services Co Expands with Local Investment
Three Pittsburgh-area oilfield services companies–White’s Equipment Rental, Crossfire Production Services, and White’s Welding–are collectively owned by a single company, White’s Holdings. Owner Calvin White started White’s Welding first, in Oklahoma, and grew the enterprise from there, eventually expanding into the northeast. White’s move to the northeast was prescient. The Marcellus/Utica has supercharged his businesses in the region. It was time to grow, and is often the case, small businesses growing into medium-sized businesses need cash to do so. Enter another Pittsburgh-area company, F.N.B. Capital Partners (FNBCP), a private equity firm. FNBCP has just announced they’ve made an investment in White’s Holdings so the company can expand. That is, White has traded away some ownership (retaining majority ownership) in return for cash to expand the three businesses that serve the drilling industry in the northeast. Another jobs and economic miracle courtesy of fracking…
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If there’s one thing you NEVER do, it’s get between an anti-driller and a camera/microphone. Elected town leaders in Ligonier Township (Westmoreland County), PA found that out the hard way Tuesday night. At the regular town board meeting there was a 45-minute section of the meeting, out of a much longer meeting, devoted to discussion of new zoning regulations for Marcellus Shale drilling in the township. The new zoning regs are, according to town leaders, a “work in progress.” About 100 people showed up at the meeting, 50 of whom wanted to talk about this “work in progress.” It was a regular town board meeting and not the time to devote the 3-4 hours necessary for anti-drillers to preen before the cameras and spew their same old same old. Ligonier supervisors kept to the 45-minute time limit and shut down the freak show at that point. That enraged a handful of mouthy anti-drillers and, according to witnesses, the meeting got “out of control”…
It’s interesting to MDN that several of the seven Pennsylvania towns that sued the state over the Act 13 law and its zoning provisions–presumably because they didn’t want any Marcellus drilling in their borders–have done a 180 degree turnabout. It happened first in Robinson Township (Washington County), PA–the very township whose name is forever (shamefully) emblazoned on the case, which is called “Robinson v Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.” Voters in Robinson tossed their anti-drilling leaders out of office (see