Lab serving natural gas industry expanding operations

A Homer City company serving the natural gas industry is doubling the size of its lab.

Chemstream provides a number of highly specialized analyses, including fracking fluid compatibility, geochemical modeling, gas chromatography and X-ray diffraction. It has facilities in Stoystown, Muncy and Homer City, as well as Ohio, West Virginia and Illinois.

The lab space will be increased from 1,250 square feet to 2,150 square feet with the addition of a core flow analyzer, auto titrator and ion chromatogaphs, which will mean it can have double the amount of samples moving through the lab, according to the company.

Oilfield services is a relatively new business for Chemstream, which only started that line of business two years ago. It had previously served just the coal industry with water treatment and dust suppression. Now it also provides chemicals and lab services for the fracking and well treatment sections of the natural gas industry.

That’s helped boost the privately held company’s employment from 30 to 100. Chemstream is in the midst of hiring one or two more people to work at the lab due to the expansion, the company said.