PricewaterhouseCoopers with the support of the National Association of Manufacturers released a report titled, “Shale Gas: A Renaissance in U. S. Manufacturing?” The report concluded that a strong national shale play effort could result in 1 million new manufacturing jobs by 2025.
The national shale play effort is already showing strong results for manufacturers. As I stated in one of my previous columns, Nucor, a manufacturer, proposed building a $750 million iron facility in Louisiana and announced a $3 billion joint venture with Encana for 20 years of access to its natural gas production. Mitsubishi proposed plans to build an acrylic-resin processing plant adjacent to one of Dow Chemical’s new ethylene plants. Fertilizer manufacturer CF Industries budgeted $2.1 billion to expand its fertilizer manufacturing operations. Formosa Plastics increased the size of the Texas ethylene plant. (American Oil & Gas Reporter)
It has also been reported that foreign based manufacturers are seeking to build operations in the US: Austrian steel manufacturer Voestalpine AG, South African energy company-Sasol plans to build a $11 billion plus gas-to-liquids plant in Louisiana, and Egyptian fertilizer manufacturer, Orascom plan to build a fertilizer facility in Louisiana.
March of 2013, I had the opportunity of meeting Jeff Immelt, head of GE, in Houston at Rice University’s annual Energy Directors Institute. He stated that GE was committed to strengthening the energy industry. In fact, a week later, it was great to hear about GE’s announcement of committing $110 million plus to an Oklahoma research center with the focus being the oil and gas industry.
GE states that “the energy industry needs technology to work in subsea oil fields, improve hydraulic fracturing techniques and transport oil around the world.”
The shale gas efforts in the US will need to obtain approximately $250 billion in capital expenditures in the natural gas, natural gas liquids, and oil midstream sectors over the next 20 years due to infrastructure needs. America can meet the challenge!
U. S. Energy Independence Means Jobs, Security and Economic Development And America Needs America’s Energy!
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