CHARLESTON — Marcellus shale is hogging the limelight in this legislative session, eclipsing a thriving and growing natural gas industry across all of West Virginia.

And one leader is trying to make sure oil and natural gas aren’t entirely overlooked.

For instance, says Mike McCown, president of the Independent Oil and Natural Gas Association (IOGA), based in Charleston, firms invested more than $770 million in various projects statewide last year.

“It’s a very big industry,” he says.

“We’re not the size of coal, obviously. But we’re a very viable and important industry. IOGA represents more than 600 oil and gas companies throughout the state.”

Booths set up near the upper rotunda the past week focused on the industry’s value.

Marcellus shale has been afforded most of the attention, but to keep the fledgling industry in perspective, it must be remembered it is confined to a few north-central counties and the Northern Panhandle, he says.

“Marcellus shale formation is a very prolific formation that’s being developed with horizontal drilling, primarily in seven or eight northern counties,” McCown said.

“Southern West Virginia continues to be an important part of the total reserves that this state has. The conventional non-Marcellus drillers and operators are a very important part of our association when we represent them, just as vehemently as we do the Marcellus drillers.”

McCown sees almost no impact on southern West Virginia by Marcellus shale.

“It starts to thin out around Charleston,” he says. “It becomes so thin it’s uneconomic.”

Even so, natural gas is a vibrant and critical part of the economy in the southern counties and will remain as such, he says.

Given the attention that has shifted to the Marcellus potential, McCown says IOGA has been a presence at the Capitol in this session to lend its voice to certain legislation.

“We have impressed upon our legislators that they shouldn’t try to fix something that’s not broken,” he says.

“The conventional players, the people that have got wells in your area and are still drilling wells in your area, don’t need additional regulation and scrutiny. We want to make sure that any more restrictions, requirements and regulations are limited to just that new horizontal drilling play in the northern part of the state.”

One bill advancing in the House of Delegates, and a companion measure run by the Department of Environmental Protection in the Senate, is viewed by McCown as “a soup to nuts” change in regulations.

“Some are less onerous than others, but they all impact raising fees, impact more requirements and some of those we agree with and will support,” the IOGA president says.

“The bottom line is, what we’re trying to do is ensure the future and growth of natural gas development throughout the state.”

Proven reserves stand at 100 trillion cubic meters. That translates into enough fuel in West Virginia to feed the entire nation for the next four years.

All the while, new technology is pointing to other formations.

“So, it’s an exciting time,” McCown said. “Prices are low. Our organization has realized that we need to get more proactive. We have always been kind of quiet and flying under the radar, if you will.”

For the past few years, he explained, many have taken an adversarial view of the industry.

Oil and natural gas provide some $70 million in severance taxes and more than $100 million in property tax, with a payroll of some 35,000. Direct employment means jobs that pay $60,000 a year in wages.

Another bill that has drawn IOGA’s interest would witness a staggering hike in the well permit fee — from $650 to $30,000, along with an annual renewal fee of $5,000.

On top of that, McCown said the industry is facing mounting pressure from surface owners’ groups.

“We continue to work with DEP on water quality issues and fees,” the IOGA leader said. “We’re not opposed to reasonable fee increases.”

Over a six-month period, IOGA worked with the Department of Transportation in a bill that reached a consensus calling for drillers to repair road damage inflicted by heavy trucks.

“We’re about production,” McCown said.

“We want to make sure it’s done in a safe and environmentally friendly manner and keep West Virginia an attractive place to do business.”

IOGA has no problem with guaranteeing a longer notification period to landowners who own property but not the mineral rights, he said.

“People are upset about it,” he said.

“Oftentimes, they’re upset when we come in there, even though we’ve leased the property, and don’t realize that they don’t own the minerals. It’s unfortunate that people, frankly, at times, are that naive about what they actually do own.”

Very little natural gas extracted in West Virginia is consumed here.

“We’re a net exporter of gas, something we should be very proud of,” McCown said.

“Another thing that makes our state attractive is the fact we’re so close to the market. The vast majority of the market is New York City, the northeast corridor. It’s much cheaper to get out gas from this area to that market than to get it all from the Rocky Mountains or Texas. So, that’s another attractive component of producing natural gas here.”

Some wonder why gas bills are steep, if so much gas abounds in West Virginia, but McCown says the costs actually are down, contrasted with the going rates of a dozen years ago.

“If you compare natural gas with gasoline or crude oil, there’s no comparison,” he said.

“That’s why as a country, as a state, as an association, we stress looking at conversion of vehicles to natural gas and more uses from that gas.”

McCown sees a bright future in vehicles powered by natural gas.

For a while, the big push was on ethanol, and even now, with the farmers lobbying intensely, there remains strong support for that, but even Al Gore has realized it consumes more fuel to produce a gallon of ethanol than is made, McCown said.

“Now, we’ve got electric cars,” he said.

“Everybody thinks you can just walk up to a parking meter and plug in your car. But you’ve got to realize that power is generated somewhere else, from a coal-fired power plant, or a nuclear power plant. So we’ve got a good story to tell. But we’ve just been slow to taking off.”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com