JANE LEW, W.Va. – Dominion Exploration and Production, a subsidiary
of Dominion (NYSE: D), announced Tuesday that it would add 50 jobs at its Jane
Lew headquarters over the next year. Some of the employees will be transferred
from other locations and others will be hired locally.
“These are high-quality
jobs in finance, accounting, land management and computer technology,” said
Ben Hardesty, president of Dominion E&P,
who made the announcement at the annual Lewis County Chamber of Commerce meeting
at Jackson’s Mill. “We are already expanding our headquarters
building in Jane Lew, and will have to expand it some more. This shows
Dominion’s commitment to growing our natural gas drilling program in
the Appalachian Basin.”
Dominion has more than 1 trillion cubic feet of
reserves and 8,000 wells in the Appalachian Basin, making it one of the leading
natural gas drilling companies in West Virginia and the Appalachian Basin.
The
company employs about 65 at its E&P headquarters in Jane Lew. Statewide,
it has about 1,400 employees, including those who work in its natural gas pipeline,
storage and distribution businesses.
“Our roots go back to the beginning of the natural gas industry in the
Appalachian Basin, and we plan to stay here,” Hardesty said.
West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin III said he welcomed
Dominion’s decision
to bring the jobs to West Virginia.
“Dominion had several places it could
have placed these jobs, but chose to put them close to the production area
in the Mountain State,” Manchin
said. “More and more, companies are finding West Virginia is a good state
for their businesses. I commend Dominion for investing in this region, and
we proudly welcome this expansion in West Virginia.”
Sam Hicks, president
of the Lewis County Commission said: "We are certainly
excited about the increase in employees at Dominion's Jane Lew facility. Anytime
you bring in high-paying jobs, it's a great benefit to Lewis County. In addition,
we appreciate Dominion's involvement in our community."
Paul Koonce,
chief executive officer of the Dominion Energy business unit, told the Chamber
that he expects the current drilling boom in West Virginia to continue, partly
because of the increased need of natural gas for electric generation.
“Natural gas remains a key fuel to meet the growing need for electricity,” Koonce
said. “We can add clean-burning natural gas generation quickly,
especially facilities designed to meet peak demand.”
Dominion is one of
the nation's largest producers of energy, with a portfolio of more than 26,500
megawatts of generation and 7,800 miles of natural gas transmission pipeline.
Dominion also owns and operates the nation's largest underground natural gas
storage system with about 960 billion cubic feet of storage
capacity and serves retail energy customers in 11 states.
For more information about Dominion, visit the company's Web site http://www.dom.com.
