SUMMIT, Miss. (AP) — Oil exploration and production experts from around the country will meet next week to discuss the potential for the industry in southwest Mississippi.
The Enterprise-Journal reports (http://bit.ly/RudTDf) that the experts will meet Thursday and Friday at Southwest Mississippi Community College in Summit with residents and businesses on the do’s and don’ts when it comes to dealing with oil companies.
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Among the speakers is Vicky Steiner, a state lawmaker in North Dakota and executive director of the North Dakota Association of the Oil & Gas Producing Counties.
In southwest Mississippi, the boom would come from the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale oil deposits.
Officials believe if the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale formation proves to be a honey hole for oil and gas companies, then southwest Mississippi could see a boost in business and an influx of oil workers and residents with new disposable income.
Tuscaloosa Marine Shale formation is located in Pike, Wilkinson and Amite counties.
The first day of the conference is focused on landowners, with presentations on the best practices for oil leasing and land management. The second day is targeted at businesses, presenting ideas on how to take advantage of supply opportunities for the shale oil industry.
“You hear all of these stories from other areas,” said Charlotte Batson, whose career in the oil industry started as an engineer for Tenneco.
“Their roads are getting torn up and people are concerned about water quality, and there are crew camps. Southwest Mississippi is in a unique and fortunate situation in that they have a little bit of a heads up.”
Batson organized the conference with marketing strategist Amber Lombardo of Tennessee.
Batson said she looks forward to the presentation from Steiner, who works “right in the middle of the craziness” that shale oil production has brought to the western part of North Dakota.
“She is familiar with small-business issues and infrastructure issues,” Batson said. “They’re very infrastructure-constrained, just like Mississippi.”
Right now, Batson said the information and guidance that southwest Mississippi residents want boils down when will production get started, how many jobs will come in and what’s the impact on the local economy.
Batson said there’s no way to answer those questions yet.
Batson said she understands local concerns about fracking. Fracking involves pumping water, sand and chemicals into the formation, using tremendous pressure to fracture the shale and release the oil.
“There’s a lot of science and innovation and research that goes into developing particular chemicals for fracking. It takes time to drill wells and experiment with the length of the lateral drilling.
“They’re probably working hard to figure out all that stuff. The fact that they don’t have 10, 20 or even 500 rigs working right now is not meaningful. They’re still in the figuring-it-out stage,” Batson said.
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Information from: Enterprise-Journal, http://www.enterprise-journal.com
