Energy Day recently took place in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The event was organized by America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA), the Associated Petroleum Industries of PA (American Petroleum Institute, API), the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) and the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association (PIOGA). The event was attended by over 300 individuals and representatives of 13 different Chambers of Commerce. We will be highlighting information from the event in a series of posts.

One of the panels at the recent Energy Day event focused on natural gas, from the pipelines to the end consumers.  There were four people on the panel, including John Felmy, Rik Hull, Michael Dickinson, and Glenn Gorrell.

John Felmy is a representative from API.  He worked on a pipeline growing up and was pleased to discuss the economics of natural gas in Pennsylvania.  Felmy is extremely knowledgeable, and his remarks on pipelines show it.  He also stated that “exploratory wells were still up 20% (last year),” proving there is still more gas to be found!

Glenn Gorrell, with the Professional Dairy Managers of Pennsylvania, is from Bradford County.  He grew up on a farm and has been the president of the PDM for the last three years.  Gorrell spoke about natural gas and the farming industry, including the give and take between the two industries and how they can work together.  Check out his whole presentation below.

Rik Hull is the chairman for the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.  Hull talked about the pipeline companies and the regulations that govern their operations.  The pipelines are designed to operate safely, because if they didn’t, they would go out of business.  It’s as simple as that. The Public Utility Commission does check, however, to make sure safety is first when dealing with pipelines.

Michael Dickinson is a manager of operations from Williams.  He discussed how “Marcellus is here to stay,” and how he expects his grandchildren to even see natural gas development in this region.  The resource is plentiful, and they are constantly working on developing the new infrastructure necessary to deliver it to consumers.

The panel discussing pipelines and distribution was extremely interesting, and everyone who attended was certainly better informed about how the process works after it had concluded.  With the growing importance of new pipelines and other midstream infrastructure in this part of the country, it’s refreshing to see fact-based presentations like these.