Drillers meet with chamber

By Steve Mocarsky smocarsky@timesleader.comStaff Writer

WILKES-BARRE – Representatives of two natural gas companies operating in the region made presentations and answered questions from area business owners at a “CEO to CEO Networking Breakfast” on Wednesday at the Westmoreland Club.

After breakfast, which was hosted by the Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry, Don McClure, vice president of government and stakeholder relations and legal for Encana Oil & Gas, spoke about company operations in North America and locally in Luzerne County.

The company is drilling one natural gas well in Fairmount Township and soon will drill another in Lake Township. If these exploratory wells are successful, operations will expand locally.

And while Encana is still in an exploratory mode as the first company to drill into the Marcellus Shale in Luzerne County, Chesapeake Energy is in full-scale production with more than 20 operating rigs in northern counties.

McClure and Brian Grove, Chesapeake’s director of corporate development for the Eastern Division, spoke of economic and environmental benefits of natural gas production – creating jobs, using less water than any other energy-production method and producing cleaner-burning energy than coal or oil.

Several business leaders posed questions to the men on a variety of topics, from timelines for increasing operations locally to natural-gas-burning vehicles.

Asked what the biggest misconception was in Marcellus Shale development, Grove said it’s the perception that hydraulic fracturing – the process of shooting millions of gallons of water with sand and chemical additives into a well bore to stimulate the release of gas from the shale – can contaminate a water supply.

In response to other questions, the men said their companies are recycling most of the water used in well drilling to lessen the impact on local water supplies.

They also said the industry needs to better educate members of the public on natural gas drilling because there are a lot of inaccurate and incorrect information being circulated, referring specifically to a documentary called “Gasland.” Some groups want a moratorium on drilling.

Chamber President Todd Vonderheid said the event was “about allowing two new companies in Northeastern Pennsylvania to speak to regional business leaders and answer their questions. We all have lots of questions, and I don’t think any of us have made a final decision except there’s clearly an opportunity, and I think we have no choice but to explore it.”

“Encana has taken space in downtown Wilkes-Barre; Baker-Hughes, a drill bit supplier, has taken space in Crestwood Industrial Park. There are other vendors and suppliers in the industry talking to our staff every day about locations in and around the marketplace, so there is clearly a job creation impact associated with the industry. … We’re happy about that,” Vonderheid said.

He said it would be “na�ve to think (drilling opportunity will) go away and not be exploited in some way. So I think it’s incumbent upon business leaders to work with the industry and regulators to make sure that this resource is exploited in a way that has positive economic impacts but, most importantly, positive long-term environmental impacts.”