No one can say how many jobs in Butler County come from the Marcellus Shale natural gas industry.

Not the state Department of Labor and Industry, interest groups like the Marcellus Shale Coalition, or Butler County government or job and development groups such as the Butler County Chamber of Commerce or the Community Development Corporation of Butler County.

Individual companies and businesses can say if they are or think they are getting Marcellus business, but for the most part no one seems to have even a rough estimate of the overall number of jobs in the county that are connected to the shale gas industry.

But things are a little different for counties that are booming with more Marcellus Shale drilling, like Washington and Greene counties to the south.

According to a study completed by the state’s Center for Workforce Information and Analysis, in 2008 Washington and Greene counties had 670 core industry jobs and an additional 10,000 ancillary jobs from Marcellus Shale.

Core industry jobs include drilling, pipeline, oil and natural gas extraction, while ancillary jobs — secondary or supporting jobs — are the result of the Marcellus Shale industry. Some of those jobs are listed as power generation, sewage treatment, highway and bridge construction, testing laboratories and trucking.

“While our nation continues to face historic economic challenges, our industry — made up of tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians — continues to grow at unprecedented rates, helping to provide good jobs at a time when they’re most needed,” said Kathryn Klaber, president and executive director of the Marcellus Shale Coalition based in Canonsburg.

While no one and no agency has a breakdown of the number of Marcellus Shale jobs in Butler County, the experts agree that it is mostly ancillary jobs that are growing here faster than jobs directly dealing with gas wells.

Those experts also agree that the number of shale jobs will continue to grow in the county in years to come.

Looking for a career

Peggy Weckerly, executive director of the CareerLink office in Butler, said that more gas jobs can be found in Washington and Greene counties but she expects “while we may never reach their level, Butler County should continue to grow in natural gas jobs.”

She knows Range Resources, one of the bigger natural gas players that has come to the state, has been hiring recently in the county for roustabouts, who are unskilled oil and gas industry laborers, as well as a few other Marcellus Shale related businesses.

“But I don’t know if these jobs are for everyone,” Weckerly said. “They are long hours requiring physical stamina.

“For instance, on some of the jobs, if your replacement doesn’t show, you can end up working 24 hours straight, with most workers on the job for two or three weeks straight and then off just as long.

“The money is fantastic, but people interested in these jobs really need to know what’s involved with them,” she said.

It’s not that Weckerly is disparaging the gas jobs, but instead she wants to make sure the right people are making the right job choices, she said.

Marcellus Shale gas companies, like other companies, can contact the CareerLink to list jobs, as well as find help in locating workers.

Butler County jobs

There are county companies that have grown along with the Marcellus Shale gas industry. One of those is Vavco in Center Township.

Owner Matt Vavaro said he started Vavco in 2006 as a one-man operation, doing engineer, design and project management work for Marcellus Shale surface facilities.

This year he is up to 14 employees in the office with an additional 10 to 15 employees in the field.

“I’ve been in the (oil and gas) business for 31 years and no one expected this kind of growth,” Vavaro said. “Growth will continue in Butler County, but at a slower rate. We need to have a proactive response to (drilling) activities.”

Mark Devinney, vice president of the Freeport terminal for Nicholas Enterprises, a Butler County transportation firm, said the company had been handling fracking sand for Marcellus Shale drilling companies.

“We’re not doing sand now, but are providing other drilling products and expect the sand to come back online soon,” Devinney said.

Nicholas Enterprises employs about 50 people, and while Devinney said he is not expecting additional hires soon, he does expect the gas industry to continue growing in the region, especially when drillers begin working on the deeper Utica Shale vein.

“Our products should grow in the industry and we will grow with that,” he said.

Dan Tack and his father, Newt Tack, owners of Tack Operator Training, have seen a big jump in the number of people wanting to learn how to operate heavy equipment.

Dan said he knows a number of students have gone into Marcellus Shale work, but that it is hard to say how many.

The Tacks teach workers at their East Butler Road site how to operate bulldozers, backhoes and other large pieces of construction and earthmoving equipment.

“It’s hard to keep track of these guys once they leave, even if you try because they go where the jobs are,” he said.