This article originally provided by The Charleston Gazette

March 29, 2011

Oil/gas group launching ads to counteract 'negative spin'

By Alison Knezevich

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The Independent Oil & Gas Association of West Virginia plans to launch an advertising campaign touting the industry's contributions to the state, saying the natural gas sector has unfairly gotten a bad reputation during the debate over tougher regulations for Marcellus Shale drilling.

The campaign will include radio, TV and newspaper spots, said Charlie Burd, the group's director. A release date hasn't been set, but Burd said the ads would launch soon.

IOGA recently hired the firm Charles Ryan Associates to produce the ads and handle other public-relations work.

"Historically, the oil and gas industry has always been somewhat quiet and tried to fly under the radar because we didn't want to bring attention to ourselves," said IOGA President Mike McCown.

But he said certain groups have recently "put a negative spin on our industry."

In an interview Tuesday, McCown and other members of IOGA touted the industry's economic contributions and the potential for new jobs with the development of the Marcellus Shale, which lies under most of the state and is one of the world's richest natural gas basins.  

"We believe that we're a good member of the community," McCown said. "We're proud of the industry."

The group says the oil and gas industry supports 35,000 jobs and that Marcellus development will create 7,000 more. It says the industry pays $177 million a year in property and severance taxes.

Some have criticized the industry for hiring out-of-state workers from areas such as Oklahoma and Texas.

"The Marcellus formation is being drilled not because it was just discovered, but because of new technology," McCown said. "That technology was developed in other states."

He said the industry is aggressively trying to hire West Virginians and that the out-of-state workers also help local economies.

"If people come from out of state and stay at the hotels here, and eat at the restaurants and buy gasoline at the service stations, I don't think that's a bad thing," he said.

The association plans to host more job fairs in the future, he added.

The industry needs employees ranging from truck drivers to engineers to accountants, said McCown and IOGA Treasurer Steve Downey.

At a public hearing in February at the Capitol, West Virginians complained of a lack of oversight and of damage to local roads and property caused by Marcellus drillers.

The Legislature left Charleston earlier this month without passing anything to toughen regulations on the industry. The House and Senate could not agree on the regulatory legislation, and each blamed the other for the bill's demise.

Among other issues, the legislation would have addressed maintenance of roads, rights for property owners, and regulations for the practice of hydraulic fracturing, in which millions of gallons of water are mixed with chemicals and pumped underground to fracture shale deposits.

Now, some members of the House of Delegates have called for a moratorium on new drilling permits until tougher regulations become law.

Environmentalists, surface owners and some lawmakers also want a special legislative session to address the issue. Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin, acting as governor, opposes a moratorium and a special session.

The state Department of Environmental Protection employs about 15 inspectors for 59,000 wells. The increased permit fees in the failed legislation would have helped pay for more staffers. Tomblin now plans to spend $2 million to hire inspectors.  

IOGA supports hiring more inspectors and "reasonable increases in permit fees," Burd said.

But it opposes regulations like those that would make drillers place Marcellus wells farther from streams and people's homes and water wells.

Under current law, horizontal wells can be placed within 200 feet of people's homes. Some lawmakers wanted to increase that to 1,000 feet.

IOGA says that is too restrictive.

"It begins to minimize the areas where you can actually drill a well," McCown said. "If you limit the areas where people can drill, then you're minimizing the opportunity."

Reach Alison Knezevich at alis...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1240.