Companies Chip In to Help Encino Energy Raise $100K for Local Charities

WARREN, Ohio – Encino Energy has capitalized on the Utica Shale natural gas and oil play to become one of Ohio’s leading natural gas producers and the state’s No. 1 oil producer.

“We started in Houston and we could have operated anywhere in the country, but we really looked across the whole country and found the best opportunity was right here in the Ohio Utica, so that’s why we are here,” said Hardy Murchison, founder, president, CEO and director of Encino Energy. “We’re dedicated to Ohio. We really are. We can’t find anything that can compete per capital with what we’re doing in Ohio.”

But Encino Energy did not do it alone, partnering with many companies here in the Mahoning Valley for mutual success.

On Wednesday, they partnered again to hold the Encino Vendor Charity Classic at the Avalon Lakes and Squaw Creek golf courses, where 300 golfers raised $100,000 for charities in the region.

One of the companies Encino partners with is Vallourec Star, which produces the seamless steel pipes that are connected and placed into the ground to produce oil and gas. 

“In the [Mahoning] Valley, people don’t necessarily associate a steel plant with energy or even an energy producing company,” said Gary Hauck, president of Vallourec Star, which currently employs 1,600 in the Youngstown area. “And what is great about our partnership with Encino, it allows us to showcase the products that our people so proudly make … that they’re being used in Ohio. And we’re here to support the energy independence of the nation, and our people are proud to do that and they’re excited to be part of that.”

Vallourec is only one of the many companies in the region that teams up with Encino Energy to produce what they need. Guy Coviello, president and CEO of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, said Encino and the natural gas and oil industry has created several thousand jobs here, including at other companies like Brilex Industries Inc., Dearing Compressor and Pump and Warren Fabricating.

Additionally, the golf outing attracted Encino vendors and partnering organizations from elsewhere, another plus according to Coviello.

“You’ve got companies from all over the country, so I can’t thank Encino enough for giving us the opportunity to show off the Valley to all these companies coast to coast,” Coviello said. “And also to draw attention to the fact that we are a major player in the oil and gas industry, and the world is becoming more and more dependent on the Mahoning Valley for energy.”

Murchison said those participating included not only Encino employees but equipment and service providers from across the country.

The current natural gas and oil play is not showing any signs of slowing down, either. Murchison said the company just added another quarter-billion dollar investment, its fourth drilling rig in the area. With that fourth rig and two completion crews, Encino Energy is the largest active oil and gas operator in Appalachia, he said.

And he believes the future is in natural gas energy, although the oil play found in Columbiana County has been a “huge bonus for the state of Ohio and Encino.”

“I think there’s huge potential for Ohio to expand electric generation from natural gas, although we do have to have some help from the regulatory bodies, particularly the federal ones,” Murchison said. “I think as artificial intelligence expands and becomes a bigger part of American life, we’re going to have to use more electricity, and the best source of electricity is natural gas.”

The Encino Vendor Charity Classic was an opportunity to give back to Ohio, especially the region that has been so much a part of the Utica Shale play.

According to Jackie Stewart, vice president of external affairs with Encino Energy, the five charities receiving donations will be the Brightside Project in Columbiana, the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber Foundation, the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio, the Cambridge-Guernsey County Community Improvement Corporation’s manufacturing workforce initiative and the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy Foundation.

Coviello said the money for the Regional Chamber Foundation will go a long way toward implementing strategies to grow the workforce, including the marginalized population, and toward strategies to increase housing stock for the Valley.

“We are seeing a lot of economic growth thanks to Encino and others, and so we need to grow population so we can fill the jobs that are being created,” Coviello said. “And in order to grow the population, we have to increase the housing stock so we can have places for people to live.”

Coviello said he was happy to see the corporate citizenship effort that companies like Encino and its partners showed through the event Wednesday.

“Vallourec has a long history here in the community in the Mahoning Valley,” Hauck said. “We’re excited to partner with a great partner of ours, Encino Energy, and give back to the community that is so important to our business and, more importantly, to our employees. We’re excited to just be a small part of this event and to give to the great charities that have been identified. And we can’t wait to see the great work that this money will do.”

Pictured at top: From left are Guy Coviello, president and CEO of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber; Nick Ruppelt, COO of Evolution Well Services; Hardy Murchison, founder, president, CEO and director of Encino Energy; and Gary Hauck, president of Vallourec Star.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.