Kings and queens of shale: Who's benefitting from Marcellus Shale drilling?
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Alex Paris, the president and CEO of Alex Paris Contracting Co. Inc. in Atlasburg, Pa., says his business has boomed with all the Marcellus Shale activity in the area.
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The effects of Marcellus Shale drilling on local communities aren't always easy to pin down, but some business owners say they don't need spreadsheets or financial statements to gauge the impact.
They are the kings and queens of Marcellus Shale: the people who have benefited most either through property deals, business opportunities, or just plain hard work.
Several have become stars of television commercials and billboards by Range Resources, which has used these darlings of the gas drilling industry to sell itself.
Their stories range from the developer who struck it rich with his good timing and vast expanse of property to the family struggling to stave off bankruptcy.
"In 2009, we were ready to pull the plug. I was so embarrassed about having to tell my employees. That was the worst part of it," remembers Michael Pascuzzi, co-owner of New Dominion Construction, about the company's near bankruptcy 19 months ago. "Then, along came Marcellus Shale. It saved us."
Today, the Mount Pleasant, Washington County-based company owned by Mr. Pascuzzi, his brother Nicholas Pascuzzi III, and father Nicholas Pascuzzi Jr., is thriving.
Since December of 2009, the company has grown from 60 to 78 employees and has increased annual revenues from a low of $8.1 million in 2009 to more than $14.3 million this year.
And, all but about $500,000 of that revenue was directly generated by Marcellus Shale gas drillers. Jobs the company had been doing at landfills began fizzling out as the economy faltered, but it began to pick up work excavating sites and doing other heavy equipment work for multiple drilling companies. .
"We realized we needed to be part of it," Michael Pascuzzi said of the Marcellus revolution. "We knew we would go under if we didn't get work."
First Published July 3, 2011 12:00 am
