Companies, Unions Want Shale Industry Opportunities
CANFIELD, Ohio -- Companies and labor unions that don’t want to be left out of the oil and gas business resulting from exploration in the Utica shale met Thursday to make sure they are included.
Local 396 of the Plumbers and Pipefitters union hosted an “energy networking forum” at the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center to strengthen their ties and discuss what they can provide one another.
The networking breakfast was not meant for vendors to pitch their products or services, but rather for businesses and labor leaders to meet and discuss what they need to share in the success the shale play will bring, Butch Taylor, business manager of the Local 396, said afterward.
Reporters from two newspapers and a television station showed up to cover the event only to be informed the meeting was closed to the press. Some participants, including Taylor, told reporters they would be available for interviews afterward.
“It was an opportunity to get local people, local contractors and local businesses to start making a partnership with this type of industry and through the partnership, build some type of relationship,” Taylor said.
Some participants have developed contacts with in Chesapeake Energy, the largest player in eastern Ohio in developing the Utica shale, he noted. Among those attending were managers or representatives of steel companies, energy companies and universities.
“The thing now is to try to focus ourselves on [having] a well-trained workforce,” the business manager said, “whether it be in the safety part of the programs, the education end of it or the skill part of it.”
The conversations inside the meeting revolved around the qualifications a workforce will need, the amount of work they can expect, where the local oil and gas industry is headed, and the avenues to get involved with the industry, Taylor said.
Pete McKenzie with OOGA – Ohio Oil and Gas Association -- spoke about the industry in the Buckeye State and its role in economic activity. He wanted interested businesses to understand how they could fit in, Taylor reported.
Gerry Barker, president of Sorganics Inc., spoke about growing kenaf, a highly absorbent fibrous plant, around the well sites to absorb oil spills.
“What we’re offering here is a solution for some of the land contamination,” Barker said. Sorganics is a “green solutions” company based in Florida.
In 2010, kenaf mulch was used in the cleanup of Florida’s marshes after the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, he said.
“If you have contaminated ponds, you can also possibly use it in ponds and it would suck up the contaminants,” Barker told reporters afterward.
He hopes, if his product is used at well sites, that it will create farming jobs.
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.