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Colombian Delegation Visits to Learn about Shale Plays
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- A delegation of Colombian scientists and environmental regulators visited the Mahoning Valley Friday as part of a 10-day visit to the United States to learn more oil and gas exploration of shale plays across the country.
The trip was prompted by the possibility of a shale play beneath Colombia.
“I wouldn’t call it a play yet because it hasn’t been drilled, hasn’t been tested yet, but the right rocks are in the right places,” said Camilo Montes Rodriguez, a professor of geosciences at Los Andes University in Bogota.
Montes, the member of the group most fluent in English, and his seven colleagues were accompanied by three translators when they met Friday with Tony Paglia, a vice president at the Regional Chamber, Laura Meeks, president of Eastern Gateway Community College, Tracee Joltes, Eastern Gateway workforce development director, Martin Abraham, dean of the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics at Youngstown State University and YSU geology professor Jeffrey Dick for a lunch at the Youngstown Club.
Dick had accompanied the group on a tour of a Chesapeake Energy drilling rig beforehand and the toured V&M Star afterward.
During the lunch, Paglia gave a brief history of Youngstown and surrounding region up to the impact of what he called “the shale boom” before taking questions.
“It’s a comeback story,” Paglia said.
Montes asked about the “Rust Belt” nickname, remarking he had not seen the rusty factories he was told about.
Colombia is a Third-World country moving quickly from a mostly agricultural economy to semi-industrial with oil and gas extraction and coal and gold mining taking place over the last 10 years, Montes said.
“There is a lot more money flowing around because of the industry,” Montes related, “and the government has made an impact because they have more money to spend and invest in many things.”
He also asked Paglia about the level and types of environmental regulations in place. “We are looking at a few things first,” Montes explained, before Colombia imposes its regulations, such as environmental effects, drilling techniques and the distribution and marketing of oil and gas.
Montes said the visit has sent him a “mixed message” because in Texas he saw a well-regulated industry and everybody he met there seemed happy. In Ohio, however, he met a woman who had “really serious complaints about water pollution and getting sick.
“We’re getting this mixed feeling and it’s concerning,” he said. “If there’s something wrong with this new technology, the chance to damage something permanently is very high.”
Montes said he would return home with “that cautionary tale.”
Meeks discussed the impact her community college has had on training a workforce to compete for the jobs coming to Ohio.
She mentioned the availability of jobs would allow many who left the area to look for work to return, prompting Edilberto Penaranda-Correa, attorney adviser in the hydrocarbon sector of the Colombia environmental licensing authority, to ask about social problems that sometimes come with a suddenly increased population, such as prostitution and violent crime.
“Some of these individuals have worked together, have familiarity, but now, since shale oil drilling is not something they have started in Colombia, this will be the emerging leadership group for addressing the issue in advance of it happening,” said Maura O’Donnell-McCarthy.
O’Donnell-McCarthy is program officer for the Cleveland Council On World Affairs, which is sponsoring of the Colombians’ visit.
“They have spent a day in Cleveland talking to environmental groups, talking to people at the Cleveland State University learning about the economic development impact,” O’Donnell-McCarthy said. “One of their goals is to look at the academic initiatives so we are guests of Youngstown State.”
Accompanying Montes and Penaranda were Oscar Geovany Bedoya Sanmiguel, head of the geology department at EAFIT University in Medellin; Sergio Alberto Cruz Fierro, coordinator of hydrocarbon licenses in Colombia; Andres Pardo Trujillo, professor of geology and energy at Caldas University in Caldas; Diego Fernando Parra Benavides, technical manager at the Colombia National Natural Gas Association; and Rodrigo Saurez Castano, deputy director at the Colombia Directorate of Licenses, Permits and Environmental Procedures.
After leaving Youngstown, the Colombians stopped in Washington, D.C., before returning home.