Shale Crescent USA President Nathan Lord and Lynnda Kozera talk to foreign companies at the Shale Crescent booth at the SelectUSA show in May 2025 in Washington, D.C. Shale Crescent officials are talking to companies around the world on why being in this region, including the Mid-Ohio Valley, is a good way to grow their business as the area has a large supply of natural gas. (Photo provided)

As the rest of the country and the world looks at development of natural gas resources, representatives of Shale Crescent USA have traveled around the world explaining why businesses would want to locate along the Ohio River Valley.

Shale Crescent USA is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to encourage business growth in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. They emphasize low natural gas prices that allow manufacturers to operate more efficiently while producing products more economically with access to water, half the population of the United States and Canada, and 70% of U.S. polyethylene and 77% of polypropylene demand, according to the organization’s website.

Shale Crescent has participated in multiple U.S. Commercial Services Roadshows, which are designed to provide international companies with information about expanding their businesses to the United States. The most recent was from Feb. 17 to March 1 when the team joined development representatives from 20 states in the European Roadshow, covering seven cities across the Netherlands, Belgium and France. The event was attended by over 200 vetted companies interested in U.S. investment, Shale Crescent President Nathan Lord said.

They have traveled to Germany, Japan, Turkey, India and elsewhere highlighting what is available locally in terms of natural gas and more that could be utilized in a number of industrial applications.

“Many of them just don’t know where we are,” said Greg Kozera, marketing director for Shale Crescent USA. “They know where New York City is, they know where Texas is with all its oil and gas.

“What really surprises people when we tell them is this region is the birthplace of America’s oil and gas industry, which birthed the petrochemical industry, which birthed the steel industry, the rubber industry, the glass industry and more,” he said. “We want to get that message out there that if you are going to make something and use energy, this is the place you want to be and this is where the energy is and where the experienced workforce is.”

Kozera said they were talking with a small French manufacturer who was looking to enter the American market and for an established American company to partner with, one where the owner might be looking to retire but wanted to keep the company operating and their people employed. They put them in contact with someone and get conversations started.

“We present ourselves as a world-class opportunity for international, energy-intensive manufacturers,” Lord said. “Manufacturers really want a lot of natural gas, and they want a lot of energy, because they use the natural gas differently than we do.

“We use it for heat, and they use it as feedstock to actually make stuff.”

Things from clothing to plastics and other products of modern life all have gas molecules in them.

“The reason we have a world-class opportunity is we have a world-class supply of natural gas,” Lord said. “What that translates to (is) an abundance of natural gas and low-cost energy, which translates to more profitability to these manufacturers.

“The opportunity is here,” he said. “The fun is being able to discuss the small-town opportunity that they have here.”

Some companies are looking to locate in a more metropolitan area like where they have been, while others are receptive when Shale Crescent USA talks about the small town environments in this region.

“Some of them like the idea of being in smaller communities,” Lord said. “One of the benefits of being in a small community, you are celebrated. People want you there, especially when you come from a manufacturing area like we are.

“There is a lot of legacy manufacturing here, and there are generations of people here who have been involved in manufacturing here. The opportunity is to attract jobs here, which we say the people of the Mid-Ohio Valley want those jobs here.”

Lord has said job creators are given opportunities to be involved in the community, with their employees on chamber of commerce boards, participating in volunteer organizations and sponsoring youth sports teams.

“That begins to paint a picture of what life would be like for them here,” Lord said. “They want to work and see their business thrive, but they have to live their lives too.”

Kozera talked about being in a river community and how in some parts of the world local riverways are very polluted. There are parts of the world where no one would have a restaurant along a river.

“We have trees around us, and it is green,” he said. “The rivers are quiet and peaceful.

“They want that.”

They have talked with representatives of companies around the world who live in major cities, and some of them are looking for a small town life.

Kozera said one individual described it as “wanting to be the big fish in a small pond.” The individual is looking at establishing something that would bring in 70-80 jobs.

“It is not huge and would not be a big deal in Columbus,” he said. “In Parkersburg, it would be a very big deal as these would be good-paying jobs.”

Part of Shale Crescent USA’s mission is “to let the world know this place exists,” Kozera said, adding their message for the last eight years or so has been to create awareness of this region.

“If we were a country, we would be the third-largest natural gas-producing country in the world,” Kozera said he has told international companies.

The people he talks to are always surprised by that revelation as the area has been able to tap into the natural gas here through better technologies that have been developed to extract the gas in the ground.

“That is the key,” Kozera said.

He said he is regularly told by international companies they thought all the gas was in Texas.

“We have told them that if they are in manufacturing and you use energy, this is the one place you can be on top of your energy and your feedstock and still be in the middle of your customers,” Kozera said. “We have that advantage and that is what we need to be promoting as a region and as individual states.”

Local industry experts had research done comparing this area with other oil and gas producers around the country with marketing materials put together that groups like Shale Crescent USA have been able to show to potential interested corporations.

“It is showing that we can do manufacturing here more (profitably) than anywhere else in the world,” Lord said. “We are starting to see the fruit of that now.

“This is an opportunity for the Mid-Ohio Valley and the region to be able to benefit from all the natural gas and infrastructure we have, all the rivers we have and the workforce that has historically been there.”