Thousands join shale drilling conference
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Interest in the Marcellus Shale continues to grow, if attendance at an annual conference on natural gas development is any proof.
The Developing Unconventional Gas East conference opened Wednesday at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center with 2,500-plus attendees -- compared to 1,450 last year -- and hundreds of drilling opponents assembled outside to protest. The conference was organized by Hart Energy Publishing of Houston, Texas.
In the keynote speech, David L. Porges, president and CEO of EQT Corp., highlighted four lessons his Downtown-based energy company has learned since venturing into the Marcellus: that improved technologies increase productivity and reduce costs, that preserving the environment is good business, that natural gas is the new kid on the block, and that "to thrive we MUST create demand."
Mr. Porges said exploration of the natural gas reserves that underlie much of Pennsylvania has both relied on and spurred innovation, but producers "need to remember the need to keep going" and to develop a culture of innovation, something that he admitted was not always in place at EQT, formerly Equitable Resources.
He also urged attendees, who represent all aspects of the industry from drilling to marketing to engineering, make sure their companies work to prevent environmental damage and, if it happens, to mitigate it and remediate it. They also need to hold each other accountable.
"The industry earns much more credibility if we embrace the notion of punishment for bad actors," he said.
In support of his third point, he noted most residents who live atop the Marcellus are unfamiliar with natural gas drilling. The new phenomenon, for them, raises multiple concerns that the industry must recognize as valid.
"We do cause inconveniences for the places in which we operate," he acknowledged.
While answers to concerns about pollution or about jobs being created for outsiders may be obvious to producers, they aren't obvious to residents and need to be communicated.
On the point about creating demand, he asserted, "We have solved, as an industry, the supply problem" regarding natural gas. It is now possible to recover so much of the substance that the challenge is finding uses for it all.
First Published November 4, 2010 12:00 am
