Chesapeake Energy has long term plans in Valley

Chesapeake Energy has long term plans in Valley

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Chesapeake Energy plans to continue to invest significantly in the Mahoning Valley for decades to come.

Ryan Dean, senior manager of corporate development for Chesapeake, was the featured speaker at the 2011 annual meeting for the United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley.

Part of the reason the United Way wanted Dean to speak is because of Chesapeake’s commitment to the United Way in other areas, said Bob Hannon, president of the local United Way. Chesapeake has a $1 million endowment in Fort Worth, Texas with the United Way.

“I think this company will have a big impact in the Valley,” he said.

Dean focused much of his speech on explaining why Chesapeake has chosen to become active in the Mahoning Valley.

“Youngstown is uniquely situated between the Marcellus and Utica shales,” he said. “Both shales will create opportunities.”

Chesapeake currently is the nation’s second-largest producer of natural gas, generating 9 percent of the gas produced domestically, Dean said. The company is moving away some from dry natural gas because of the current low price for the product. The Utica Shale is expected to have more fluid-based natural gas.

The company remains in the early stages of development in the Utica Shale. Chesapeake has drilled 59 wells in Ohio and nine of those are producing, he said. The company has 10 drilling operations in the area now, but that number is expected to be around 13 by the end of the year and should reach 22 by the end of 2013.

“We’re still finding our way along for where we’re going to find the best results,” Dean said.

Chesapeake has announced plans to invest $900 million in a facility in Columbiana County to treat the fluid gas that comes form the wells, he said. Throughout Ohio the company has already invested $2 billion in acquiring leases.

“Right now we’re only 18 months into what is a very long-term process,” he said.

These wells are expected to produce for the next 20 to 50 years, Dean said.

Dean also spoke about the jobs his company and other in the oil and gas industry would help to create.

There are 410 people who are needed to turn one well into a producing site, Dean said. Those jobs range from engineers, truck drivers, rig hands and numerous other positions.

“Jobs are available for everyone in a drilling operation,” he said. “It’s not just petroleum engineers.”

Much of the attention paid toward drilling in the shale has centered on the fracking process, Dean said.

Fracking is only about 10 days out of about nine months it takes to put a well into production, he said.

Things are starting to turn around for the Mahoning Valley, said Ed Muransky, owner of The Lake Club.

“It’s nice to see after all these years of people moving out, that new people are starting to find our valley,” he said.