MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The fifth annual West Virginia Oil and Gas Expo was held Wednesday at Mylan Park, with key decision makers in the industry on hand.
Low prices for natural gas has the industry in a slowdown right now. Michael Hines with Thrasher Group said that many people don’t know as much as they should about natural gas, which is why the expo is an important event.
“Most people don’t see a lot about the gas industry except for a wellhead site, or where a pipeline is being built and how it’s impacting them. “Events like these are important because it gets the message out there about how big an impact we have on the state of West Virginia and the mid-Ohio Valley,” Hines told WMOV Radio of Ravenswood.
Hines said that the Mountain State has a key role in the history of the industry.
“A lot of people don’t realize that while the first commercial well was drilled in Pennsylvania, the first one that produced oil was in West Virginia.”
Hines said that the industry has a history “of being very cyclical,” which he doesn’t expect to change. With coal struggling, he did see no reason why coal miners couldn’t make a transition to work in natural gas.
“If you’re good in the field, there’s no reason why you wouldn’t be able to transfer those skills to the gas side of the energy industry,” Hines said.