BOB ROLLEY/FOR THE EXPRESS. Pictured, from left, are Ty Hall, representing Pipeline Supply and Service Co., and Doug Hartman of DMI International, along with Pennsylvania Governor Conrad Schlesinger of Kiwanis International, and Joe Waltz, Lock Haven club president.

LOCK HAVEN — Clinton County is very business-friendly and that is one of the reasons why DMI International, a specialty company serving the natural gas and oil industries, has invested here, said local DMI representative Doug Hartman of Beech Creek.

Hartman was the guest speaker at the Kiwanis Club of Lock Haven on August 8. He was joined by Ty Hall of Pipeline Supply and Services Co.

Both men stressed that oil supports the development of renewable energies and that oil and gas production and extraction will therefore not disappear anytime soon.

“Oil is the lubricant for our economy,” Hall said.

“Many of the same (companies) that produce oil and gas produce wind and solar power,” Hartman added.

DMI, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but with a branch on Woodward Avenue/Route 150 in the old Buffalo Inn, makes complicated pipe bending machines for the gas and oil industry. In addition, the company also manufactures the sophisticated equipment that makes up the machines it sells.

The local office serves companies east of the Mississippi and from Florida to New England.

“Whatever is going on in the global energy industry, it’s happening here,” Hartman said, noting that natural gas exploration and production has declined over the past 10 to 12 years as gas production in the Marcellus Shale boomed.

Hartman and Hall agreed that natural gas exploration and production in central Pennsylvania is stagnating.

Natural gas prices fluctuate, but “if the price is right, people will invest.”

Asked if 2012, when gas exploration here peaked, would ever be repeated, Hartman said: “I don’t know, but I know the resource is still there. In other words, if the value (return on investment) matches the budget, (things will) happen.”

Ten years ago, DMI employed 15 people here, but today it employs just six. The company facilitates pipe bending on site and at the factory premises by renting and selling its high-tech equipment.

Today, August 14, Jared Dressler, regional director of the state Department of Environmental Protection, will speak.