The Barnesville Area Chamber of Commerce was the first in Belmont County to be invited to take part in a Web site designed to market communities and businesses to the growing oil and gas industry presence in the area.
Jason Wilson, former state senator and recently appointed Director of the Governor’s Office of Appalachia, spoke about the oil and gas industry in Ohio.
The Governor’s Office of Appalachia was created by the Ohio Legislature to serve as an advocate for the Appalachian Ohio region. The Office partners with organizations, agencies, and individuals to foster positive economic growth and improve the quality of life for all citizens living in the region.
Wilson now represents 32 counties, spanning 16,000 square miles. He said the office was created to enhance and improve the lives of the citizens of the Appalachian Region of Ohio by providing grant dollars to improve hospitals, water and sewer and road projects, and by utilizing other government funds.
Wilson said federal and state grant dollars or more difficult to obtain as more local governments compete for them.
“Barnesville is one of the leaders in applying for grants,” Wilson said. “I can tell you, that’s half the battle.”
Wilson said the “hot topic” in the state right now is oil and gas exploration and it has become a large part of his job. He estimated that 80 percent of his job was dedicated to Ohio’s role in gas and oil exploration, a role that previous directors did not have.
Wilson said it was appropriate that he be director while gas and oil exploration was the hot topic because not only did he grow up in (Bridgeport) and represent the Ohio Valley (where the largest part of the drilling is located) as State Senator, but he was a writer and sponsor of Senate Bill 165 which regulates the oil and gas drilling and distribution.
He said the bipartisan bill was passed two years ago and was industry-led.
“The oil and gas industry wants to be regulated,” Wilson said.
He said each well costs 4 to 5 million dollars to develop and it costs $1 million to develop disposal wells.
“The amount of money involved in development, research, etc., means that only the large companies are involved,” Wilson said.
He said that there are approximately 180 disposal wells in Ohio and only 20 in Pennsylvania, because the geology of most of that state does not allow for the drilling of disposal wells.
Conversely, said Wilson, there are currently 1,500 active wells in Pennsylvania and only five in Ohio.
“Governor Kasich has said that he wants the state to react properly,” Wilson said. “There is a high level of permitting and a high level of regulation.”
He said leasing was the “first wave” of what development will bring to the area. Wilson said he has heard that the single, largest lease was signed by a couple near Beallsville, but the majority of those signing leases have 10 acres or less. He said the “ripple effect” is therefore being felt first at the local tractor and car dealerships, furniture stores, etc.
“It is starting to become an economic factor in our area,” Wilson said, noting that Chesapeake Energy Corporation will be building an office in the Belmont County Industrial Park near St. Clairsville.
“This begins the multiplying effect. These impacts are real and they are happening,” he said.
“In a positive way, Barnesville was involved with the coal industry for many, many years,” Wilson said. “The Chesapeake chairman has said that the oil and gas industry will be as important to Ohio as the plow was 200 years ago.”
“We want to watch it closely and regulate it properly,” he said. Wilson said the state is considering an impact fee such as West Virginia has enacted.
“We have an opportunity, likely the best in two generations, to improve the economy of our area,” Wilson said. “We want to see your children and grandchildren come back to this area and buy a home and a car and make a living here.”
Merry said, “exciting things are starting to happen” and called the ShaleDirectories.com opportunity the “key to bringing business” to the area.
Belmont County Commissioner Ginny Favede said the county had signed an agreement with ShaleDirectories.com that would “take Belmont County into the new world of technology.”
“ShaleDirectories.com is the ‘Yellow Pages’ for anything and everything having to do with the oil and gas industry,” Favede said.
She said Barnesville’s was the first chamber of commerce in the county to which they were presenting the information.
“If we work with you and you work with your member businesses, we all win,” she said. “We are trying to be ahead of the curve and take advantage of every opportunity.”
Joe Barone, president of ShaleDirectories.com said the site, which began two years ago in Pennsylvania, offers a basic, free membership, which includes the member’s contact information. Platinum membership and Platinum Plus membership is $200 and $400 respectively and allows businesses to present themselves and what they offer in greater detail, including pictures of products and services, videos and Google maps.
“We see our role as connecting the natural gas industry with local businesses,” Barone said.
He said businesses who want to deal with the oil and gas industry must have a Web site and strongly encouraged those businesses to put ‘Utica Shale’ on their sites, so that search engines would lead searchers to their business.
“This is a global play,” Barone said, citing ExxonMobil Corporation’s recent purchase of 15,000 acres in Monroe County. “There is a tremendous amount of ‘buzz’ about Ohio in the industry.”
He said the company is creating a Belmont County page where people in the industry can get all the information they need.
Information on the site will be posted in two sections - the Summary Listing section and the Comprehensive Listing section. The information in the listing section will have a link to the full city section. The information that will be posted in each section will include: Summary Listing section - logo, 500 character description of the city and a link to the comprehensive listing section; Comprehensive Listing Section - complete information about the city, photos in .jpg format, PowerPoint presentations, fact sheets, blueprints, maps, etc. (only in .pdf format); links to various Web sites and contact information (phone and e-mail) of key individuals; Business Listings in the directory - The business listing will include the company name, address and telephone number. All business listings must be place into one of the existing listings in the directory. All businesses that do not “fit” into one of those categories will go into the “Companies for Oil & Gas” section.
Over 156,000 businesses are listed by state, county and by business category. Categories throughout the Utica Shale area include: companies servicing the natural gas industry, cleaners, employment agencies, bars and pubs, fast food restaurants, full-service restaurants, dentists, hospitals and clinics, optometrists and opticians, physicians and surgeons, banks, attorneys, financial advisors, real estate and cars and trucks.
Barone said the city of Canton has signed an agreement and he has been talking to Guernsey County officials about joining as well.
“Things are happening quickly,” he said.
Barone projects there will be 10,000 monthly visitors to the site by the end of 2012.
The directory offers a free app for iPhones and Droid Smart Phones. Barone said the app was made available in September and already 15 percent of the site’s traffic comes from those using mobile devices.
“The app itself is crucial because if puts your business in the hands of the oil and gas industry,” said Favede. “What we are doing is driving your business to the oil and gas industry. I can’t imagine anything more exciting than that app.”
For more information, visit ShaleDirectories.com or e-mail Joe Barone at (610) 764-1232 or jbarone@shaledirectories.com.
Barnesville Area Chamber of Commerce President Tom Michelli said other “exciting” news was the oil and gas expo to be held at the James Carnes Center at the Belmont County Fairgrounds in April. Michelli said the event was a joint effort of the county chambers and it was his job to get corporate sponsorship.
“In 2011 we planted the seed and in 2012 we will reap the crop,” said Commissioner Coffland.
He said the joint effort of the commissioners, Port Authority and other county agencies have led the county to the opportunity that the oil and gas industry presents.
“The next quarter to half a year will see changes that no one under the age of 50 has seen in this area,” Coffland said. “Hold on, because change is coming.”
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