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Ohio Oil & Gas Association Grows With the Industry

COLUMBUS — Last year was a year of cultivating success in Ohio’s oil and gas industry and the Ohio Oil and Gas Association fully expects 2019 to be even more productive.

According to OOGA spokesman Mike Chadsey, the industry continues to advance, learn, evolve and adapt to the economic conditions of Ohio, the Appalachian Basin and the global marketplace.

“We continue to strive to provide affordable, abundant and reliable energy to our fellow citizens both here and abroad,” Chadsey said. “Last year as well as this year, we have found great partners with our land/mineral owners as we continue to expand development across Ohio. We could not do what we do without them.

As with last year, permit activity continues to be frequent, natural gas and crude oil production in Ohio is up, rig activity in southeast Ohio is up, and changes within the industry have not stopped.

“2019 has not kept our association idle, either. We have a new logo that better reflects today’s producers, we have launched a new website, and we elected a new association president,” Chadsey noted.

Redesigned and Reimaged

The Ohio Oil and Gas Association spent the past year developing a new website that is user-friendly, full of easy-to-find resources, updates its membership and the general public on what is happening in the industry, and has a fresh, sharp modern look. The project of a new website evolved into a new logo and a full rebranding of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association.

The association has a rich history, which Chadsey said must continue to be respected and honored. Today’s Ohio Oil and Gas Association undoubtedly has a different composition than from previous years. While the mission remains the same, the way the association accomplishes that mission and the organizational structure has evolved and must continue to do so. Aspects of the association, such as logos and websites, must be evaluated and updated in an effort to continue to explain who the association members are and what they represent. The logo had not been updated in over 10 years and it didn’t properly reflect the current composition of today’s membership.

Leadership

The new year also brought a newly elected president of the association, Steve Downey from EnerVest Operating.

Downey joined the group at a time when, in Ohio, we have a new governor, a new Ohio House speaker, several new department heads and many newly elected county and local officials, all of whom will have questions about the oil and gas industry. Those questions give an opportunity to explain, discuss and educate about who the oil and gas industry is, and all it does. Education brings awareness, and that brings understanding. Downey has been in the industry more than 30 years working for various companies in a variety of industry sectors. Not only has Downey been around the industry, he has also been very involved with the association while serving on a wide range of committees.

What’s Next

Recently, the U.S. Department of Energy published a report to Congress: Ethane Storage and Distribution Hub in the United States. The report highlights the potential in Appalachia for the development of a new ethane hub based on the tremendous low-cost resource from the Marcellus and Utica shales, and the accompanying security and reliability benefits derived from geographic diversity in the nation’s petrochemicals manufacturing base.

“We have found an incredible opportunity, which is the potential for establishing an ethane storage and distribution hub in the Appalachian region,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry said at the annual National Petroleum Council meeting in Washington, D.C. “As our report shows, there is sufficient global need, and enough regional resources, to help the U.S. gain a significant share of the global petrochemical market. The Trump administration would also support an Appalachia hub to strengthen our energy and manufacturing security by increasing our geographic production diversity.”

Record Holder

The United States is now the top producer of crude oil and natural gas in the world, with an additional benefit in the form of increased natural gas liquids, including ethane. Some NGLs are burned for space heating and cooking while others are blended into vehicle fuel. Ethane is particularly useful as a feedstock for petrochemical manufacturing. Ethane production in the Appalachian Basin is projected to continue its rapid growth through 2025 to a total of 640,000 barrels per day, more than 20 times greater than just five years ago. The Appalachian region has experienced near-exponential growth in natural gas production, and that production is expected to increase for decades to come. The region is home to the Marcellus and Utica shale formations, and were it an independent country, Appalachia would be the third-largest natural gas producer in the world.

According to the Energy Information Administration, production in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia has increased so rapidly that their combined share of total U.S. natural gas production has jumped from only 2 percent in 2008 to 27 percent in 2017. In addition, natural gas liquids processing and fractionating capacity in Appalachia has grown quickly to match this increase in natural gas production. However, the Appalachian region currently lacks other physical infrastructure for a “hub” that connects supply and demand sources, including storage for the liquids.

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