Plans to turn Philadelphia city into an “energy hub” where natural gas from the Marcellus Shale would be pumped, processed, exported and used as fuel by manufacturers, were given a high-profile sales pitch at a one-day conference in the city last Friday.

The Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and Philadelphia Energy Solutions, a local refiner, hosted around 250 energy executives, bankers, lawyers and politicians at the event, which was designed to generate investor interest in the project.

Boosters argue that Philadelphia is well-placed to become the leading East Coast center for processing natural gas and its associated liquids because of its proximity to the massive Marcellus Shale reserve underlying about two-thirds of Pennsylvania; its good road, rail and port links to lucrative markets in the U.S. Northeast and overseas, and its access to expertise at the city’s many universities.

With an estimated century’s worth of gas reserves at current consumption rates, the Marcellus would prove to be an abundant supplier of gas to investors in export terminals, petrochemical plants, or manufacturing plants, the backers say.

“Philadelphia is ideally situated to provide that market expansion,” Philip Rinaldi, chief executive of Philadelphia Energy Solutions, told the meeting.

Rinaldi said natural gas would become the second act for the PES refinery, which reopened two years ago and now processes crude oil shipped to Philadelphia from North Dakota’s Bakken Shale by train.

Daniel Yergin, the prominent energy analyst at the consulting firm IHS, said the resources of the Marcellus, one of the world’s biggest shale gas fields, have not yet had a significant benefit for the Philadelphia region, which lies at least 100 miles south and east of the reserve, due to a lack of pipeline connectivity.

“So far, the city has not really been able to take advantage of what’s happening 100 miles away,” Yergin told the meeting in a keynote speech.

But creation of an energy hub in Philadelphia would allow the city to reap the same kind of economic benefit that has come nationally since fracking facilitated a boom in oil and gas production starting in the mid-2000s, Yergin said.

In an indication of its ability to sustain abundant supplies to a new Philadelphia energy complex, Marcellus output is now seven times higher than it was in 2010, and together with production from the adjacent Utica Shale, is expected to account for two-thirds of the growth in national gas production by 2025, Yergin said.

He predicted that the latest sharp fall in world oil prices – which has been driven largely by surging U.S. production – would add 0.6 percentage points to gross domestic product, resulting in economic growth of 3.5% in 2015.

Meanwhile, comparatively low domestic energy prices are attracting foreign companies, including those from Germany, to the U.S., Yergin said.

At the Philadelphia event, bankers and lawyers mingled with energy executives and other business leaders during breaks in the conference program, but it was unclear whether those conversations will yield the business deals sought by organizers.

Michael Krancer, an energy attorney with Blank Rome, and a prominent hub backer, said that “more than one business opportunity” was discussed by conference attendees, but he declined to provide details.

Still, funding is available for new energy-related projects, said Daniel Fitzpatrick, president of Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, during a panel discussion on capital and market resources.

“Capital is abundant and plentiful and looking for opportunities,” he said.

Enthusiasm for the project inside a meeting room at Drexel University contrasted with opposition outside where about 150 protestors representing 19 environmental groups called for investment in renewable energy rather than fossil fuels, and accused executives of rejecting demands for cleaner energy sources amid growing concern about climate change.

“We have tried so hard to come out of this fossil fuel century that puts so many lives at risk, and they are taking us backwards,” said Poune Saberi, a member of Philadelphia Physicians for Social Responsibility, which campaigns for environmental health.

The critics warned that Marcellus producers, already hindered by low prices because of plentiful supply, may find reserves uneconomic to extract if demand falls in response to growing concern over the use of fossil fuels.

Read Breaking Energy coverage of the “stranded asset” discussion here. 

And in an open letter to conference attendees, the environmentalists warned that Philadelphia has a history of community activism that can be mobilized against unwanted projects. The latest example, they said, is the City Council’s refusal to approve a plan to sell the city-owned Philadelphia Gas Works to UIL, a Connecticut energy-distribution company, for $1.86 billion.

UIL terminated the sale on Dec. 4, saying it was “extremely disappointed” that the Council had failed to introduce an ordinance approving the deal, and had rejected the deal without even holding hearings on the issue.

If the sale had been completed, private capital could have expedited the repair of PGW’s aging pipe network, and integrated the utility within the proposed new energy complex, the hub backers say.

Meanwhile, some speakers at the conference urged energy executives to take opponents’ concerns seriously, and recognize the environmental risks of natural gas production.

“The people outside – it’s important not to dismiss their concerns,” said Jason Bordoff, director of Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. “There are real environmental issues.”