The U.S. shale-gas revolution, which has revitalized chemicals companies and prompted talk of domestic energy self-sufficiency, is attracting a wave of investment that may revive profits in the steel industry.
Ohio this year has 39,000 jobs linked to shale oil and gas production, a number that is projected to more than triple by the end of the decade, according to a new report. Shale oil and gas accounts for $4.1 billion of the value of the goods and services produced in Ohio this year, a number that will rise to $18 billion in 2020 and $35 billion in 2035, said the national report by the research firm IHS Global Insight.
A new IHS Study measures economic benefits of Unconventional Oil and Gas Production for each State in the United States Lower 48.
As our nation's leaders work to improve our nation's struggling economy, there is one opportunity we cannot overlook: a responsible exports policy. U.S. Senators and Representatives from across the country have voiced their support for natural gas exports as a unique American opportunity that will create jobs and strengthen our energy security.
Proponents of the Keystone XL pipeline recently held a public forum in York to dispel what they call "myths and misinformation" being dispersed by anti-pipeline groups.
Demand for specialty-steel products used in hydraulic fracking is poised to continue rising next year as energy companies step up exploration and production in shale-rock formations, Optima Specialty Steel Inc. said. Optima's sales of steel tubing to natural gas producers have climbed 15 percent in 2012, and a similar increase is forecast for 2013, said Kevin Stevick, chief executive officer of the closely held company. Growth at the Miami-based company is coming from fracking in states including Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York, he said.
The Marcellus Shale region now accounts for 26 percent of the country's shale gas production, according to the latest report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Natural gas isn't just for kitchen stoves and and large power plants. Natural gas liquids are widely used in manufacturing thousands of everyday products, as well as fertilizers and other applications that people may not be as familiar with.
It has taken a couple of years for the energy industry to acknowledge a new reality: Natural gas availability is soaring in contravention of forecasting models that have been in use for decades, and the fuel is set to transform everything from power generation and transport to chemicals and even the trade deficit.
In the latter part of the previous decade, attractive natural gas wellhead prices and technological advances in exploiting shale formations prompted an exodus to Appalachia. Some of the companies flocking to the Marcellus shale formation and its enormous store of natural gas willingly paid landowners several thousand dollars per acre merely to stake their claim and, when the time was right, flip their leaseholdings for a handsome profit to another speculator or to an operating company.
