Numbers Up 'Marcellus
The Marcellus Shale natural gas boom has led to growth in companies that aren't even gas producers.
“I call it the Marcellus multiplier,” said Dave Spigelmyer, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition and a Cranberry Township resident.
Since 2008, he said the industry has added 230,000 jobs in the state. Although there is a stereotype of out-of-state workers taking advantage of the boom, he said 70 percent of shale employees in Pennsylvania are residents.
Andrew Smith, owner of AES Specialized Services in Clearfield Township, said his company has experienced 15 to 20 percent growth in each of the past six years.
The company has 17 employees. It specializes in well pad construction, well pad roads, maintenance of well sites and containment liner installation.
Before the Marcellus boom, AES worked with smaller gas companies drilling conventional, shallow wells.
“We've been doing this work for ... about 10 years,” Smith said.
Previously, Smith said AES might work on several dozen wells a year. Now, with fracking, the company might only work on a few.
“The work kind of changed,” Smith said.
Many of the small drillers went away, he said.
Because of the changing industry, Smith said the company has had to modify its work and diversify. He said AES did not do containment liners before Marcellus became a factor.
Smith said AES is going strong.
Last year, the company bought three new trucks from Caterpillar exclusively used for hauling limestone for shale gas companies. Smith said this created three jobs.“It's been a good thing for us, overall,” Smith said.He also is the fifth generation owner of Herman Oil and Gas, which provides gas to 1,000 commercial and residential customers.Smith said that business has been mostly unaffected by the shale boom, except for increased attorney fees when there are leasehold disputes. However, he said these are minor.“It's something we have had to deal with,” Smith said.Matt Vavro, owner of Vavco in Center Township, formed the company in 2006. Vavco provides surface facility engineering for well pads, which he said basically gets gas from the well to the marketplace.The company engineers equipment on well pads that process gas and control its flow. The equipment also separates gas from water, oil and other materials.He said that wells generally measure at 3,000 to 6,000 pounds per square inch of pressure. However, pipelines have significantly lower pressure. Part of his company's job is to engineer a way to lower gas pressure for pipelines.“We're always juggling a dozen to 15 projects at any given time,” Vavro said.When Vavro started the company, it was just him and a part-time assistant. Today, he has 30 employees. Rapid growth began in 2010 and continued through 2012. Since then, the pace has slowed, partially because of other companies now doing similar work. Vavro said the initial burst was not sustainable long term.“We're on a plan of continual, linear growth,” Vavro said.
Over the years, Vavco has added electrical design and instrumental control to its business.Having been involved in the oil and gas industry for more than 33 years, Vavro has seen several booms and busts.“This one has more staying power than any boom I've ever been in,” Vavro said. He sees it as a major opportunity for the United States to lessen its dependence on foreign oil.Educational aspectSchools, such as the Butler County Community College, have added programs due to the need for workers.Francie Spigelmyer, vice president for academic affairs at BC3, said the college in 2010 received a federal Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training grant, which it used to add classes related to the Marcellus boom as well as manufacturing.The classes BC3 added included roustabout training, a welder's helper course and an OSHA class. Except for a $55 cost for drug screening, driving history and criminal history for the roustabout training, the classes are offered for free.Karen Zapp, grant project manager, said that 166 people have taken the courses, with 119 taking gas courses. She said that 60 percent of them have landed jobs in the industry and 90 percent are working in some capacity.“We've had very good numbers,” Zapp said.The average age for participants is 40.She said the college now is working on an energy technology program that would start as a certificate program and eventually become an associate degree program.Zapp said the certificate program started recently. She hopes the degree program will begin within two years.Legal dealingsAttorneys specializing in oil and gas also have benefitted from the boom.Wil White, an attorney with Dillon, McCandless, King, Coulter and Graham in Butler, said about 80 percent of his practice relates to oil and gas.From 2008 to the present, most of the oil and gas work at the firm came from leasing clients. He said he would see two to four leasing clients per day.“That's all we had time for,” White said.Most clients are private landowners, but they have also included school districts, corporations and nonprofits.“Just about any potential entity you could think of,” White said.In the past, conventional wells did not produce enough gas to make it worth hiring a lawyer to deal with leasing. However, Marcellus wells produce much more.“Simply, we're comparing apples and oranges,” White said. “It's certainly made it lucrative.”Leasing clients still make up the majority of his work, but such clients have been tapering off since 2012. White said this is because so many property owners already have signed leases.He said there has been an increase in work related to pipeline rights of ways, compressor station construction and boundary disputes, and that type of litigation will continue.“There's going to be some shifting,” White said.If landowners are approached about leasing, or if there is a right of way issue, White said those involved should contact an attorney. Often, he said, problems that develop later could have been easily solved with the help of an attorney.
