Energy In Depth's Shawn:

"Throughout my lifetime Harrison County has had a relatively stagnant economy.  Gone were the days of heavy coal production and folks, including myself, seemed to think there was little to nothing coming down the pike that could stimulate the county’s economy.  This may have been true for awhile, that is until development of the Utica Shale and Point Pleasant formations began with Chesapeake’s Buell well in mid-2011.  

Since then, Harrison County has become the 2^nd most permitted county in the Utica play, following only Carroll County. Some major projects spurred by this development include MarkWest’s first major cryogenic processing plant in eastern Ohio which just opened and processes 125 Mmcf/d with more units still being built at the Cadiz facility.  Up the road in Scio, 250 contractors are busy building M3’s fractionation plant to remove valuable natural gas liquids from the gas pulled from the Utica.  At the same time, Chesapeake and Gulfport Energy have 3 of the 5 best wells in the state located in different areas of the county.  Meanwhile, pipeline companies are making their way through the county to link up the wells to the processing plants.

Though still early in the Utica’s development Harrison County is beginning to see the true economic benefits that come with this increased activity.  After a quick visit to the village if Cadiz’s income tax office I found that the county seat for Harrison County is seeing its income tax collections grow at an exponential rate.  In 2011, Cadiz collected $630,270.70 in local income tax.  In 2012, that number grew to $768,596.01 representing an 18% increase.  As of May 31^st, Cadiz has already collected more income tax than it did during all of 2011 having already received $682,779.35.  

The growth in Cadiz is astonishing and doesn’t represent much of the revenue gained by residents from the leasing of mineral rights since most of that activity is occurring outside the village.  So, in essence, Cadiz’s income tax growth is representative of local residents taking jobs in, or supporting, the oil and natural gas industry in Harrison County."

READ THE REST: http://www.eidohio.org/harrison-county-showing-the-true-power-of-ut...