BP has engaged Ohio firm Pecchia Communications as the British energy giant pursues oil and gas production in the state’s Utica/Point Pleasant shale formation.
BP signed an agreement with a group representing mineral owners earlier this year to lease 84,000 acres in Trumbull County from landowners.
The company is pitching its plans as a way to create jobs and bolster the state economy and points to its predecessor companies Standard Oil of Ohio and Amoco in tracing its Ohio roots back to 1870.
Dan Pecchia founded his eponymous firm in 2005 after stints at Innis Maggiore Group and Ira Thomas Associates. He was previously business editor of The Vindicator, the daily newspaper of Youngstown.
Curtis Thomas, director of BP’s Ohio public and government affairs operations, said hiring the PR firm shows a commitment to hire locally whenever possible.
The Utica/Point Pleasant shale is at a depth of 6,000 feet and is estimated to hold from 1.3-5.5 billion barrels of oil and from 3.8-15.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
The drilling industry-backed Ohio Oil and Gas Education Program has been working to educate the public and landowners about the shale drilling process, which involves horizontal wells and the controversial hydraulic fracturing process.