Marcellus Shale: Workers finding a future in gas drilling

PLEASANT GAP — This time last year, Eric Klinger, 19, made his living delivering pizzas. His friend, Matt Bartholomew, 20, worked in a factory that manufactured pharmaceutical products.

Now, after a six-month course, they work for Halliburton, driving trucks, hauling supplies and doing some manual labor at natural gas drilling sites. They both started at salaries of between $45,000 and $55,00 a year — higher than the wages of most Pennsylvanians, according to U.S. census data.

“Nothing wrong with that,” Klinger said with a laugh.

Klinger and Bartholomew are two of the thousands of workers hoping to make careers out of Marcellus Shale gas drilling. More than 70 percent of the people working at Marcellus Shale drilling sites come from out of state, according to a November report by Tracy Brundage, managing director of Workforce Development and Continuing Education at Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport.

It takes more than 150 types of jobs to drill one well, according to a June 2009 study by Penn College.

Some of those jobs require years of education and experience. For instance, the study says 4 percent of Marcellus Shale jobs are for lawyers, 3 percent are for engineers and 3 percent are for geologists.

While 70 percent of workers directly involved with drilling come from out of state, Michael said that many Pennsylvania residents have been able to find jobs that are indirectly related, such as truck driving. Penn College is conducting a study, to be released in the spring, on how much of the total work force is local. Read more at www.centredaily.com