On February 5, 2013 Crain’s Shale Summit took place at Executive Caterers at Landerhaven. The event sold out quickly and appeared to be a great success in all respects. I attended and was quite impressed by the quality and variety of speakers. The event was not just a showcase for oil and gas producers–the speakers included Rich Cochran, President and CEO of the Western Reserve Land Conservancy, as well as local economic development professionals, who all expressed concerns about the rate of oil and gas development and its impact on communities and the environment.

While there are many issues that are not yet fully resolved, it is clear that oil and gas producers are moving full-speed ahead in Ohio. In fact, previous estimates of production reaching an astounding 1.2 billion cubic feet per day may have been too low, as Andrew Thomas explains in a blog entry discussing the Shale Summit presentation by one of the midstream developers in the Utica shale play, MC Midstream LLC.