By Guy Coviello
President & CEO, Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Many of us remember the natural gas boom of 2010. The benefits Pennsylvania enjoyed because of the Marcellus Shale play were also being felt in the Mahoning Valley, which became the supply chain capital for the industry. The Valley’s position then grew immensely because of the Utica Shale play, with hundreds of property owners enjoying the direct benefits through land leases and royalties.
After a lull in the local impact, it seems this time there is less hype about the oil and gas industry in the Valley but more potential for prosperity since we’re not just talking about natural gas – we’re talking about oil. Yes, black gold. Texas, um, I mean Ohio tea.
It’s time, therefore, to once again embrace our friends in the oil and gas industry, for our policymakers to invest in the infrastructure necessary to enrich our Valley, for community leaders to roll out red carpets, and for government at all levels to keep the regulatory environment safe and friendly.
I had the privilege last summer of listening to Encino Energy deliver a keynote address. The rallying cry I walked away with is that our prosperity will be curtailed if we export our natural resources.
We’re blessed to have an abundance of oil and natural gas right under our feet here in the Valley. We will certainly do well selling it, but the real economic development will come from investments in pipeline infrastructure so we can make the resources available to the end users here in our region.
Rather than transporting our natural resources to power plants and factories elsewhere, we must bring power plants and factories – and all the jobs, tax payments and philanthropy – to us.
First, let’s establish how real this is. Drilling activity in the Mahoning Valley has picked up to levels not realized since the beginning of the Ohio Utica Shale development. Oil production, specifically, has hit historic highs in Columbiana County, and there’s interest in Mahoning County seeing renewed drilling next. The play is creeping further and further north.
We have seen reports that Ohio is sitting on the largest growth oil play in the lower 48 states. We already have saved more than $45 billion because of the natural gas production industry.
Now, let’s think about the benefits. In terms of supply chain, Vallourec, one of our largest employers, supplies all the steel casing to Encino’s wells, Ohio’s largest producer of oil. In addition, we have hundreds of local businesses, like the Brilex Group, VEC, Dearing Compressor and others, that support the oil and gas industry, employing thousands of workers with good pay and benefits.
Even as we have enjoyed the fruits of two billion-dollar, natural gas-fired power plants, one operating and the other under construction in Lordstown, there can be more. While we like to brag about our front position in the electric vehicle manufacturing industry and tout the “Voltage Valley” moniker, we can simultaneously become the focal point for how the world generates power for those vehicles.
As we use our low cost of living to lure people, we should also flaunt an abundance of low-cost energy to lure factories, warehouses, data centers and other big energy users.
This Utica Shale play resurgence is real. It’s time to get excited.