Jefferson County is poised at the beginning of a boom that could last 30 years or more as drillers begin extracting natural gas from the Marcellus shale and petroleum from the deeper wells of the Utica shale.

That was the theme of a report by Donna Hrezo, small business hub coordinator for Progress Alliance, during the Progress Partners monthly meeting, held Tuesday afternoon in the J.C. Williams Center at the Franciscan University of Steubenville.

Hrezo and Salem Township Trustee Terry Bell attended a tour of Greene County in Southwestern Pennsylvania in late June. Read more »

North Dakota ended the decade with more than 430,000 workers, up more than 61,000 since 2000 and an increase equal to the population of Bismarck, the state's second biggest city, a Job Service analysis showed.

Thousands of jobs remain unfilled in a state that's enjoying a robust economy thanks to its booming oil patch and healthy agriculture markets, the agency said.

While North Dakota lost residents for decades, it has gained population and jobs as oil production has increased in the past few years. Read more »

Endeavour International Corporation announced today Monday July 18, 2011 that it has entered into purchase and sale agreements with SM Energy Company and certain other minority owners to acquire the leasehold and producing interests held by SM Energy and its partners in the Marcellus shale in north central Pennsylvania, as well as a pipeline and related facilities for aggregate consideration of $110 million. Read more »

GeoBio Energy, Inc. today July 14, 2011 announced that it has signed a definitive agreement for the purchase of Lary Archer & Associates, Inc. Archer is head quartered in Weatherford, Texas, approximately 60 miles west of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Archer provides services to the natural gas industry with a large array of specialty trailer mounted equipment, safety devices, mobile-nitrogen production units and flow monitoring equipment. Read more »