"We're very excited about the growth that we've seen here and the potential for growth in the future," said Vicki Avril.
When TMK IPSCO opened its pipe-threading operation here in May 2010, it started with a single thread line and about 20 employees, Avril said. Since then, the company has added another processing line and has today 72 employees at the site. "It's played out very well for us," she said.
More than half of those jobs, Avril noted, were filled with those who were either unemployed or underemployed.
TMK IPSCO manufacturers oil country tubular goods, or OCTG, pipe used in oil and natural gas exploration. The Brookfield plant makes threaded connections and then adds them to pipe produced at TMK plants in Koppel, Pa. and processed in Ambridge, Pa. TMK IPSCO is a division of OAO TMK, Russia's largest manufacturer and of steel pipes and one of "the global top-three pipe producers," according to the company's website.
"We have the capacity to add a third line" at the Brookfield plant, Avril said. But the company wants to make sure the Brookfield operation is running its two lines at full capacity -- and there is sufficient demand in the near-term to warrant new investment.
Should the company move forward with a third thread line, it would mean another 30 jobs or so at the plant, Avril said. "We will build as the demand grows here," she said.
TMK IPSCO's Brookfield plant threads pipe with premium connections used in deep, complex drilling operations, especially for end-users such as giant energy companies who are aggressively exploring in the Marcellus shale in western Pennsylvania. The Brookfield site, once a location of the former Sharon Tube Co., positions TMK IPSCO perfectly to capitalize on drilling in the region, Avril said.
But the real potential may lie in eastern Ohio, where companies such as Chesapeake Energy are looking to cash in on a huge repository of dry and wet gas in the Utica shale.
Using a combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, energy companies are able to tap into these repositories and unleash natural dry or wet gas that has been trapped in shale rock for 400 million years.
"The Utica shale is even deeper than the Marcellus shale," Avril said. As such, it puts more demands on drilling and the type of connections used in these operations. "The advantage of the premium connection is that if gives you a better seal to ensure the integrity of the pipe when drilling," she said.
Pipes brought to the plant are threaded on both sides, explained Dave Green, director of operations. Four computer-controlled machines are able to automatically thread the pipe.
The connections are machined to a couple thousands of an inch tolerance, so they are high-precision components, Green reported. "Each pipe and each thread is inspected on 28 different elements," he said. "When they're drilling the shale, they bend the pipe at 30 degrees every 1,000 feet," and TMK IPSCO's pipe and threading components are built to withstand this action and high-pressure hydraulic fracturing.
"This is perfectly situated for the Utica," Avril said. "So far, the news is very good about this being a very prolific shale."
Still, it might be a full year before well development begins in the Utica, as many specialists believe that companies will spend most of 2012 evaluating rock formations and grasping with the shale's geology.
According to Gas Business Briefing, an online news service based in Pittsburgh, industry players attending a symposium there Nov. 17 said investment in natural-gas processing operations is needed before Utica can be tapped.
"We have to get the processing and fractionation plants built before this play can move forward," said Larry Wickstrom, division chief of the Ohio State Division of Geological Survey. "No one wants to invest money in those plants until they see production, and producers can't produce much unless the plants are there."
Last week the shale gas boom caught the attention of a news crew from CNBC, which visited the TMK IPSCO plant Friday as part of a segment it was developing on shale gas and green energy.
"I'm hearing a lot of hope, a lot of cautious optimism," said Jane Wells, a reporter for CNBC who spent several days in the Mahoning Valley interviewing business executives about the economic prospects of shale gas.
Initially, Wells and her crew came here to produce a segment on the defense industry and how proposed budget cuts would affect smaller manufacturers such as RTI International, which operates a titanium mill in Niles. Then, they decided to switch gears and tackle shale development and its potential as part of a "green" energy series the network is featuring this week.
Development of the Marcellus and Utica shale means a host of new jobs in a region that is traditionally considered economically depressed, she said.
"In the short-term, this is all good for jobs," Wells observed. "This area has had a rough time of it. People are extremely hopeful that the natural gas boom will bring boom times."
Copyright 2011 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.