Chesapeake Energy opens $7 million housing and training facility in Athens Twp.

ATHENS TOWNSHIP - Chesapeake Energy Corp. on Thursday gave reporters and local officials a tour of Nomac Drilling LLC's newly opened $7 million Eastern Training Center and Housing Facility in Athens Township.

"This facility is the fulfilment of a goal Chesapeake and Nomac had to provide a convenient housing option for all drilling-rig employees," said David Fisher, Chesapeake Energy's vice president for drilling services. "Our investment in this state of the art training facility demonstrates the local job growth that Nomac Drilling is creating in the Marcellus Shale and the company's commitment to taking good care of its employees."

The 39,360 square-foot Eastern Training Center and Housing Facility includes housing for 276 Nomac gas drilling workers as well as a 3,600 square foot training facility, said Rory Sweeney, a spokesman for Chesapeake Energy.

"We're really proud of this facility," said Brian Grove, director of corporate development for Chesapeake Energy. The facility "represents Chesapeake's commitment to continued growth here," he said.

Nomac Drilling LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chesapeake Energy Corp.

The Eastern Training Center and Housing Facility, located on Lamoka Road, has 11 buildings, including six dormitories, a cafeteria, a training center, a non-smoking recreation center, a smaller recreation center for workers who smoke, and a laundromat, Sweeney said.

Construction of the facility, which began in June, is now complete, Chesapeake officials said.

The 11 buildings were constructed of modular units that were trucked to the site and assembled, said Bob Newport, business manager for Nomac Drilling.

Drilling workers work 12-hour shifts for 14 days straight, and then have 14 days off, he said.

The facility provides housing for workers from various locations in Pennsylvania and New York while they are working on the rigs, Fisher said. Typically, they will return to their homes during the 14 days they have off, he said.

It's convenient for workers to use the housing in Athens Township, because it saves them from having to make long commutes, they don't have to cook, and their laundry is done for them at the facility, Fisher said.

Company vans transport the workers between the drilling rigs and the Athens facility, Newport said.

Working on a rig "is very hard work," Fisher said.

The facility in Athens Township "gives them an opportunity to relax and get away from that situation and be rested and be well fed," he said.

"We have a lot of amenities here" for them, he said.

All the rooms in the dormitories have two beds each, Newport said. Because the work shifts last 12 hours, one roommate uses the room to sleep while the other is at work, Newport said.

The housing facility opened last week and is nearly full, Sweeney said.

Starting in 2011, the training center at the Athens facility will offer training to new hires who have no experience related to gas drilling, so that they can begin at an entry level job on a drilling rig, said Kimberly Smithton, Nomac's director of training.

Currently, new hires have to travel to Searcy, Ark., to receive that training, which lasts 75 to 90 days and which includes at least two seven-day stints of hands-on training at drilling rigs, she said.

Once simulators are brought to the Athens site next year, the training needed to work at an entry-level job on a drilling rig will be offered at the Athens site, too, she said.

In addition, the Athens facility will provide training that will allow workers on drilling rigs to advance to more skilled jobs on the rigs, she said.

Chesapeake wants to provide opportunities "not just for a job, but for a career," Fisher said.

The facility provides "a gateway" for people from the local area to find work on drilling rigs, Sweeney said.

Housing

The facility will help ease the housing shortage created by gas workers moving to the area, said former Bradford County Sheriff Steve Evans, who works as a senior security officer for Chesapeake Energy.

While Chesapeake will continue to lease all of the Valley Inn in the Valley area for its employees, it is no longer leasing other motels, Grove said.

All of Chesapeake's leases of motels, including its lease of the Towanda Motel in Towanda, have expired, Grove said.

"A ton of local contractors helped build this facility (the Eastern Training Center and Housing Facility)," Grove also said.

Currently, there are only men housed at the Eastern Training Center and Housing Facility, Grove said.

However, accommodations can be made to house female rig workers if the situation presents itself, he said.

The training center in Athens is equipped with computers and will have Smartboards, too, Smithton said.

The housing facility in Athens offers free housing to Nomac workers, according to a press release from Chesapeake Energy.

The main recreational building at the Athens facility contains pool tables and foosball and ping-pong tables, as well as a TV lounge and an exercise and weight room.

The facility's cafeteria can serve 144 residents simultaneously, the press release said.

The facility also has outdoor horseshoe pits, a baseball field and a volleyball court, the press release said.

It is surrounded by a fence, because its security workers need to keep track at all times of how many workers are there, said Evans. Workers must sign in by name at a gatehouse at the facility's entrance each time they arrive and must sign out when they leave, he said.

Hurley's Catering has a contract to provide food for the site, Newport said.

James Loewenstein can be reached at (570) 265-1633; or e-mail: jloewenstein@thedailyreview.com.