CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — The oil and gas industry may have experienced a bit of a slowdown in West Virginia in 2015, but there are still major investments on the horizon, according to industry officials.
Corky DeMarco, executive director of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association, pointed to the planned buildout of natural gas pipeline infrastructure to transport locally produced gas to new markets.
“There are billions of dollars worth of investments that will go forward in the next three to four years, and that’s equal to what would be spent on developing a factory,” DeMarco said. “And I’m not suggesting that one replaces the other or anything like that. The point is, the industry, no matter what you hear about frackers or downturns or those sorts of things — we are still doing projects that will ultimately allow us to drill more wells, because we’ll have more takeaway.”
Bob Orndorff, a senior policy adviser for Dominion, said there are six major natural gas transmission pipelines planned in the region, representing $5.7 billion worth of investments within West Virginia’s borders…
