Schools begin to fill growing demand for welders
The law of supply and demand for a skilled workforce is being aptly demonstrated in the area as the energy industry continues its expansion here, particularly with its work in the Marcellus Shale.
The first example of one of the basic tenets of a free market economy occurred a few years ago when area career school and community colleges launched driller training programs for people seeking work in the natural gas industry.
The latest example is being shown with the buildout of natural gas pipeline construction that is occurring throughout the Marcellus and Utica shale plays in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio.
This month’s lead story on the rise of welding programs being offered at area career and technology centers as well as career colleges underscores the response to demand from the energy industry as it works to build a network of transmission lines needed to move the abundance of natural gas and liquids to markets around the country.
While the need for people to work on drilling rigs of several years ago represented the initial phase of energy extraction, the demand for welders could be a far deeper and longer one, given the extensive buildout of pipeline infrastructure. Recent estimates find at least 50 different projects by major energy companies working to connect gas production in West Virginia to major pipelines in Pennsylvania. That demand should continue as more work proceeds in the Utica play in eastern Ohio.
But the current demand for skilled welders could just be the tip of the iceberg, according to Ken Broadbent, business manager for Steamfitters Local Union 449, which has been doing much of the work at natural gas compressor stations and pipelines across the Marcellus.
Broadbent told me recently that if Shell Oil decides to build a cracker plant in Beaver County – the time frame for the decision was recently extended another six months – the union is estimating that thousands more welders would be needed. The demand would not only come for the construction of the plant itself, a project estimated to take about three years, but for the other associated industries and infrastructure expected to be built around the region as a result of the cracker plant’s presence.
The facilities that process ethylene, the feedstock for scores of petrochemical products, are very similar to refineries, he noted.
“About 60 to 70 percent of the material is pipe,” Broadbent said.
In addition to our related stories about pipelines, this month’s Energy Report also covers the rest of the energy spectrum, from Consol Energy’s installation of Southpointe’s first electric vehicle charging station to a Washington state company’s test of a battery to store windmill energy for future use on the electric grid.
We also look at the state of the coal industry, which is taking a number of hits from the economy, cheap natural gas and an advancing regulatory climate.
With all of the talk about energy, J.R. Shaw reminds us in his column to save some energy for the myriad leisure activities from the Mylan Classic Web.com tour at Southpointe to the annual PONY League World Series and Washington County Fair that await us as summer approaches its apex.