Posts Tagged ‘western Pennsylvania’

BY STEVE McCONNELL (STAFF WRITER)
Published: June 28, 2010

With the boom in Marcellus Shale natural gas development throughout the region, area educational institutions are growing to keep up with work force demands.

New training, certification and degree programs are being created at local schools to ensure local job skills are tailored to white- and blue-collared job needs related to the natural gas drilling industry.

Already, Lackawanna College and Johnson College in Scranton, Keystone College in LaPlume and the Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport represent the growing trend of educational institutions offering course work and the hands-on training needed to become employable in one of Pennsylvania’s growing industries.

And, college administrators agree the reason for the trend is simple: There’s a demand for it by both the industry and potential workers who want the training and the jobs that come with it.

An industry-financed study conducted by Penn State’s department of energy and mineral engineering, which offers an undergraduate degree in natural gas engineering, expected Marcellus Shale natural gas extraction efforts to create more than 200,000 jobs in the state and have an overall $18 billion economic impact by this year.

“Marcellus Shale is going to be big business,” said Christopher Kucharski, Lackawanna College spokesman. “Problem is there is just nobody trained to handle the positions they want filled.”

It appears a change is under way.

Larry Milliken, director of Lackawanna College’s energy program and a natural gas instructor, just finished guiding the first class of 18 students through its first year of study to earn an associate degree in natural gas technology.

Based at the college’s New Milford campus in the center of the action near gas fields in Susquehanna County, the program is preparing students for well tender jobs – a position that requires monitoring and maintaining natural gas wells during their lengthy production phase.

There is generally one well tender employed for every 20 to 40 natural gas wells, Mr. Milliken said, and the entry-level annual salary is $36,000. Sixteen students have paid internships with natural gas drilling companies this summer in western Pennsylvania, he added.

“The industry has been very supportive of wanting to get (our students) on board,” he said. The college also is hiring three additional instructors this year to accommodate the increase in students who have enrolled in the natural gas technology degree program for the 2010-11 school year.

At Lackawanna College’s new campus in Hawley, college administrators recently announced a new certificate course for fall centered on training accounting assistants, accounting clerks and administrative assistants specifically for the oil and gas industry.

Tracy Brundage, managing director of work force development at Pennsylvania College of Technology, said administrators decided to take the leap into offering natural gas drilling-related courses this year. The decision followed an in-house study that determined growing employment opportunities because of the prevalence of natural gas development under way in the region.

“The jobs are going to be around for a long time,” Ms. Brundage said. “We’re just getting started … to get our arms around what is happening … and how we need to respond.”

Pennsylvania College of Technology has just begun offering training and certification classes in welding specialized for the industry’s infrastructure and commercial driver’s license classes, and has tweaked some of its academic majors – including diesel and electrical technology – to include natural gas drilling-related coursework.

So far, about 350 students have enrolled in the non-degree programs.

The college plans to expand its offerings, perhaps to include training for natural gas well operators and emergency response technicians, Ms. Brundage said.

Keystone College, known for its focus on the liberal arts, is also jumping on board.

Robert Cook, Ph.D., the college’s environmental resource management program coordinator, said the college will be offering a handful of new courses early next year that include mapping underground natural resources tied specifically to natural gas.

The environmental resource management degree, a four-year Bachelor of Science, has had its “highest level of interest this year” in part because of the Marcellus Shale boom and an expectation that jobs will be available for graduates, Dr. Cook said. The degree, which includes environmental law courses, can also prepare a would-be environmental regulator, he added.

“It’s clear energy is going to be an important subject for decades,” said Dr. Cook, a professional geologist. “It’s thrilling to see our discipline become an important skill set.”

Keystone is also hiring a new instructor to teach undergraduate courses within a new natural gas and petroleum resource curriculum that is now under development.

Marie Allison, director of continuing education at Johnson College, said the college will be offering its first class in pipe welding next week tailored to techniques needed by the natural gas industry. The college also will offer a class for advanced welders to prepare for certification in a specific style of welding demanded by the industry.

The college’s welding program had been defunct since 2001, because of declining enrollment, but the multitude of pipes and fittings that will be laid by the industry in the coming years yields greater demand for skilled welders, she said.

“They need welders,” Ms. Allison said. “We want to give someone the fundamentals and give them the opportunity to find a job.”

Contact the writer: smcconnell@timesshamrock.com

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Copyright:  The Scranton Times

Bill, 2 Supreme Court decisions could alter how operations are taxed, located.

By Rory Sweeneyrsweeney@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

Three recent state-level actions – a legislative bill and two state Supreme Court decisions – could affect how natural gas wells are sited and taxed. Earlier this week, state Rep. Bill DeWeese, D-Greene County, proposed a bill to tax underground gas deposits by adding their assessed values to property taxes. The driller would pay, and the tax revenue would, for the first year, be used to reduce the municipality’s millage to equal the previous year’s tax revenue. The millage – a dollar tax on every $1,000 of assessed property value – could be increased in subsequent years.

“If a municipality needs the same amount of money as last year, then yes, the millage would go down. But, the reality is they’re probably going to keep ours the same and get more money from them (the drillers),” said Marianne Rexer, a business professor at Wilkes University.

The bill is in response to a 2002 state Supreme Court decision that no law exists to tax natural gas, as there does to tax coal and other minerals.

Stephen Rhoads, president of the Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Association, said the tax wasn’t utilized by many counties before, and “it is a false hope that this is going to bring a revenue stream to counties and school districts any time soon.”

The state Supreme Court ruled in February on two western Pennsylvania cases regarding municipalities’ rights to restrict drilling.

In one case, the court found municipalities can’t control where drilling infrastructure is permitted, as that would interfere with regulations already promulgated in the state Oil and Gas Act.

But they can indicate in which zoning districts drilling may be allowed “in recognition of the unique expertise of municipal governing bodies to designate where different uses should be permitted in a manner that accounts for the community’s development objectives,” the court’s opinion states in the other case.

The ruling might not have much effect in the Northeastern Pennsylvania municipalities of interest to drillers. Many don’t have zoning ordinances, and others, such as Fairmount Township in northwest Luzerne County, want less restrictive ones.

Several landowners have sought drilling leases, township Supervisor David Keller said, and he has no interest in restricting their options. The township now yields to the county’s Planning and Zoning office, but Keller said the township is looking into writing its own zoning ordinance because “it would give us more leeway to let people do more with their property as they see fit.”

Copyright: Times Leader

Expert advises landowners to have groundwater tested before gas drilling begins.

In the rush to sign leases to drill for natural gas, some fear that dollar signs might blur landowners’ considerations of other important issues, like protecting groundwater.

But landowners are unlikely to notice most major threats to water quality, and the problems they do notice, according to Bryan Swistock, a water specialist with Penn State University, have more to do with landowner oversights than driller mistakes.

“Most of the real health concerns in water you wouldn’t even notice,” he said. “The vast majority of the complaints turn out to be something else (other than contamination from drilling), so it’s really important that people take a look at their water supply and make sure they’re not causing their own problems.”

He noted that problems often occur from faulty residential wells or other outside factors, but landowners attribute it to the drilling. Natural gas drilling sites are cropping up in the region as companies rush to tap the Marcellus shale, a layer of rock about a mile below the surface that industry experts believe is trapping billions of dollars in natural gas.

Swistock, who has done most of his research with shallow wells in western Pennsylvania instead of the deep shale wells, stressed the importance of getting water tested for a baseline before giving drillers the green light. “It’s very difficult to show that anything’s been done to your water unless you can show it was good before,” he said.

He suggested watching for sedimentation, particularly due to construction and ground disturbance, as well as metals like barium and iron showing up in groundwater.

“It’s not common, but it can happen from time to time,” he said. “If it’s going to happen, most likely it’s going to happen right around the gas well.”

Just as important are concerns over the quantity of water used, where it comes from and where it goes. The innovative horizontal drilling method used to tap the shale requires millions of gallons of water, and industry watchers like Swistock are concerned that the region lacks the treatment facilities necessary to process the tainted water that results.

In an attempt to educate landowners about these water issues, Swistock has been holding seminars through the Penn State Cooperative Extension. One is scheduled for 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Oct. 14 at Lake-Lehman High School.

“It’s funny. You can pretty much divide the people who attend these things into two groups,” Swistock said. Those who stand to profit off the drilling generally attend but don’t get too agitated, he said. Those who won’t profit but stand to be affected by any problems do get agitated. “It’s a natural reaction. If you’re going to make money from something you’re more willing to put up with it.”

Still, Swistock noted, with all the problems, the problems with natural gas drilling are a far cry from those associated with past energy extraction activities in this region. “It certainly pales in comparison to coal mining,” he said.

Rory Sweeney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7418.

Copyright: Times Leader

But experts say that doesn’t mean drillers won’t eventually explore here.

None of the 73 permits the state Department of Environmental Protection issued Wednesday for natural gas wells in the Marcellus Shale was in Luzerne County.

That doesn’t necessarily mean drillers aren’t interested in looking for gas here, experts say. But a combination of factors may slow activity compared to other parts of the state.

“I’m sure it’s still in the mix,” said Stephen Rhoads, president of the Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Association. “The work in trying to explore and analyze for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale in the region … is only beginning in the northeast” region of Pennsylvania.

Energy companies and geologists have estimated for decades that billions of dollars worth of natural gas is locked in a layer of rock called Marcellus Shale that runs about a mile underground from upstate New York down to Virginia, including through the northern tier of Pennsylvania. Only recently have technological advances and higher energy prices made extracting the gas financially feasible.

Western Pennsylvania has much more drilling infrastructure, such as wastewater treatment facilities, than this region, Rhoads said, which explains why the majority of the permits issued on Wednesday were for western counties.

He also attributed the companies’ deliberate pace to budgetary constraints, a lack of drilling rigs and an incomplete grasp of the geology.

“It takes a lot of time and money to understand what lies more than a mile underground,” he said. “These companies are investing a lot … to make sure they get it right.”

While some properties have been leased in the northwestern section of Luzerne County, Mark Carmon, regional DEP spokesman, said there are no drilling permits in the county. He was unaware of any awaiting approval, either, but cautioned that doesn’t mean county landowners have missed the windfall.

All the assurances don’t make the waiting any more palatable for landowners.

“It’s pretty frustrating,” said Jack Zucosky, whose Luzerne County Landowners group is looking to get its more than 6,000 acres leased. “We’ve been close a few times with a few companies, but nothing definite yet.”

He’s confident Luzerne County property will get leased, but not until next year at the earliest.

“I really think what’s going on here is natural gas (prices) dropped a lot, and these companies are having cash flow problems,” he said. “It’s a waiting game right now.”

Rory Sweeney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7418.

Copyright: Times Leader

Revenue from tax on underground resources seen as windfall, but bill would need more support to pass.

Local municipalities could tap into the potential natural gas drilling windfall if state lawmakers are able to push through legislation that’s been stalled for more than a year.

House Bill 1373 would amend the state General County Assessment Law to explicitly make underground resources such as natural gas and oil subject to real estate assessment and taxation. The bill would require gas companies to pay taxes on the resources they extract, but wouldn’t add any tax burden to landowners.

“We’re concerned about these companies coming in and sucking up huge profits at the expense of citizens of Pennsylvania,” said state Rep. Eddie Pashinski, D-Wilkes-Barre, who is a co-sponsor of the bill.

Introduced in May 2007 by House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese, the bill was drafted in reaction to a state Supreme Court decision that ruled taxing those resources wasn’t specifically enumerated in the law. The amendment would preempt that ruling by making taxation of those resources part of the law.

Tom Andrews, DeWeese’s press secretary, said the push for the bill came from DeWeese’s constituent municipalities in western Pennsylvania, which had been relying on revenue from the resource taxes for years before it was shut off by the court decision.

However, the bill has been stalled in the House Finance Committee since May 2007, and sentiment among supporters is that state Senate Republicans, on principle, won’t support a tax bill.

“At this point, I don’t think it has the support to pass in the House, pass in the Senate and be signed by the governor, so that’s why we’ve held off on pushing it out of the House,” Andrews said.

Rory Sweeney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7418.

Copyright: Times Leader

In addition to anticipated jobs and profits from natural-gas drilling, water usage should increase as regional operations get under way.

That could mean more income for water haulers and sanitary authorities.

Drilling companies have been ramping up activities because an underground rock layer known as Marcellus Shale is expected to contain billions of dollars in natural gas deposits.

Each well-drilling operation could require up to 1 million gallons of water. While the water can be reused, it eventually must be disposed of at a treatment facility.

The Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority hasn’t accepted any well-drilling wastewater, but it is interested.

“If it’s not hazardous to our plant, and if DEP approves us as a disposal site, we would consider it,” executive director Fred DeSanto said.

The state Department of Environmental Protection recently sent a letter to sanitary authorities advising them that wastewater from the drilling can be harmful to certain treatment systems and cause them to violate their discharge permits. The water must be tested and approved by DEP.

Such contracts could be lucrative, but have potential problems. WVSA, the major wastewater treatment facility in Luzerne County, charges 3.5 cents per gallon for treatment of up to 2 million gallons and 3 cents for quantities beyond that.

That could help offset the estimated $6 million in upgrades the authority said it needs to meet Chesapeake Bay watershed agreement discharge standards.

That quick influx, however, creates a problem.

Sandy Bartosiewicz, WVSA’s financial and budget officer, said the authority has never been in a situation where it accepted “that amount of volume at one time.”

It will also have an impact on wastewater haulers.

“The volume of the material is significant,” said Chris Ravenscroft, president of Honesdale-based Koberlein Environmental Services. “I don’t think there’s any one company out there that has the capacity for the volume. … So I think there’s a large volume of work that will be generated.”

He said his company is actively seeking energy companies that are looking for haulers and treatment facilities. Gas companies are investigating drilling possibilities through the Marcellus region, which stretches from upstate New York through northern and western Pennsylvania, including the upper fringe of Luzerne County, and down into Virginia. Several wells have been drilled in this region, according to DEP spokesman Mark Carmon.

Cabot Oil & Gas Co. announced recently a well in Susquehanna County became its first to generate income.

Copyright: Times Leader