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Old 05-22-2010, 10:28 AM
 
20,273 posts, read 32,889,722 times
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Marcellus Shale drilling could have a profound impact on Pittsburgh's economy, so I found this article very interesting:

Why Some Natural Gas Is Worth $7.28

It explains why lower natural gas prices haven't led to as much as a slowdown in Marcellus exploration and drilling activity as you might think. In a nutshell, the reason is that Marcellus wells produce both methane (aka "dry" natural gas), and also decent quantities of "natural gas liquids", or NGLs (hence Marcellus gas is considered "wet"). The price of NGLs tends to roughly track crude oil prices, which of course have been generally up recently. Accordingly, Marcellus drillers are getting more than enough additional return from NGLs to make their drilling worth it, despite relatively low methane prices. And apparently there is even talk of piping NGLs from the Marcellus region to petrochemical markets in areas like Chicago and Ontario.

All this is good news, because it basically means Marcellus is a more diversified play than one might otherwise think, which should in turn mean a bit less of a boom/bust cycle in the industry and related businesses. Of course it is very important that the Pittsburgh economy be further diversified nonetheless.
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Old 05-22-2010, 10:36 AM
 
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A good friend of mine just found a job in the marketing department of an oil and gas company downtown. It's a Canadian company that has decided to make Pittsburgh its USA headquarters because of the Marcellus shale.
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Old 05-22-2010, 10:46 AM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gameguy56 View Post
A good friend of mine just found a job in the marketing department of an oil and gas company downtown. It's a Canadian company that has decided to make Pittsburgh its USA headquarters because of the Marcellus shale.
Very interesting. Generally I think people have been thinking of Marcellus jobs in terms of the actual drilling, plus maybe related heavy industries like pipe-making. However, all this activity is also likely to create support jobs in a wide range of fields--marketing in your friend's case, and also legal, financial, and so on. And many of those people don't have to be located right near the drilling.

In the short term, of course, that means some of those jobs are likely still being created in Texas, Canada, or wherever these companies are coming from. But I'd bet your friend's experience will be typical, as more and more companies locate these operations in Pittsburgh.
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Old 05-24-2010, 06:11 AM
 
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My company just located to Pittsburgh, from Charleston, WV...our drilling area is located in NE PA.
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Old 05-24-2010, 11:40 AM
 
Location: Hempfield Twp
780 posts, read 1,377,024 times
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Still need to take a slow, methodical approach to avoid the environmental mistakes of the past. The state is or will be enacting a 3 year moratorium for drilling on state lands. There are enough leases already to keep the drillers busy and private land isn't affected but, I think it makes sense to take a step back right now. DEP doesn't have enough personnel currently to adequately inspect the drilling that is taking place now much less if it is balls to the wall drilling.
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Old 05-24-2010, 12:29 PM
 
Location: Hooterville PA
712 posts, read 1,961,644 times
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Some businesses such as Whipstock has seen a increase in their business, but the thing about the Marcellus Shale boom is that it is not creating that many new jobs because the people that they hire first are usually only the most experienced.

Even Halliburton has been doing nothing but cherry picking, when they look for new employee's they only hire people with previous experience. The only problem with that is - unless you have a job to get experience, you can't get hired. If you already have a job, the only way you are going to quit would be if you got fired or if the new company offered more money.

I was picking up welding rods the other day and the people at the counter was talking about a local fabricator that was hired to work in the gas fields and he was bragging that he was on the job for 84 hours straight.
Money might sound glamorous to you - but when you don't have anyplace to spend it, the government is just going to take it anyways.
And - if you were married, it wouldn't be long before you were in divorce court. You can't have a family life and work 24 hours a day.

Just as the coal operators did 120 years ago, so will happen with the gas exploration today. They will drill holes until the easiest spots are taken. Then the small time operators will try to get into the business.
Then when everyone makes a big mess and we have a ecological disaster just like what is happening in the Gulf right now - they will all pull out and the government will end up paying the bill to clean it all up.

In the meantime, the people who's water source has been contaminated, will have to pay for water the same way you pay for gasoline - by the gallon. The poor people who owns the land and the surface rights will be the people who has the least to gain and the most to loose.

To some city slicker - who is making a living off the sweat off the backs of the hard working individuals, where they don't even see the drilling going on - has no idea what the drillers are doing to the local ecology.
They don't even care, because their salaries are driven by profits.

So I guess it is a wonderful thing this new process of drilling and fracturing to get free gas and then leave the hole behind when you are through with it.
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Old 05-24-2010, 06:47 PM
 
Location: RVA
2,420 posts, read 4,696,876 times
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I love that where I live is becoming a hotbed of fossil fuel extraction in 2010. It's even better if Halliburton is involved.

/sarcasm
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Old 05-26-2010, 06:34 PM
 
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I saw an audi with texas plates driving through bloomfield today. I can only imagine what industry he/she is associated with....
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Old 05-26-2010, 09:09 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gameguy56 View Post
I saw an audi with texas plates driving through bloomfield today. I can only imagine what industry he/she is associated with....
Hey now, don't be hatin' on Texans ...we're moving to Pittsburgh the end of June from Houston. My husband is working for the company an earlier poster mentioned that is headquartered in Canada but is opening a new US office in Pittsburgh in June.
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Old 05-27-2010, 06:12 AM
 
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The more Texans, the merrier, as far as I am concerned.

Just bring some barbecue.
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