After nearly four years, the head of Pennsylvania’s leading natural gas industry group will be stepping down.
The Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) announced Friday its CEO Kathryn Klaber will be leaving the group this fall and will stay on during a nationwide search for her replacement.
Klaber, a Beaver Falls native, will be representing the MSC at upcoming events in Australia and London and will host the group’s third annual Shale Insight conference in Philadelphia in September.
Klaber joined the MSC at its inception after working as the executive vice president for competitiveness at the Allegheny Conference on Community Development and as the executive director of the Pennsylvania Economy League.
She said her plans for the future will remain private until her replacement is found.
Klaber said she’s proud to have been involved at the start of the group.
“It’s been incredibly humbling to be part of the early stages of the growth of this industry in an area of the commonwealth where I grew up...” she said.
While the industry boomed when Klaber started in 2009, new drilling has since started to dwindle.
Well drilling along the Marcellus Shale has slowed over the last year, going from 1,937 new wells in 2011 to 545 the following year, according to FracTracker.
With drilling reduced, Klaber said companies need to return to their roots.
“A lot of the capital has been invested and the proving of the resource has been done,” Klaber said. “What we have ahead is to really capitalize on those important early investments.”
10 percent of the nation’s natural gas production comes from Pennsylvania and 96 percent of that gas comes from an MSC member, Klaber said.
“We’ve put in place an organization with five offices around the commonwealth and individuals on our team who will carry this organization forward and support the industry,” Klaber said.
