No commercial natural gas drilling takes place in Georgia, but that hasn’t kept the industry from touting the economic benefits to the state.

The American Petroleum Institute released Tuesday a survey listing the 18,505 “jobs supported by these (fracking) activities.” Fracking refers to hydraulic fracturing, a process to extract hard-to-get oil and gas from shale fields in Pennsylvania, Texas, North Dakota and beyond.

The institute projects 32,000 fracking-related jobs in 2020 and 39,000 by 2035.

Gas exploration is underway near Dalton, but market prices remain too low for the gas to be sold commercially.

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Jeff Graham (right) executive director of Georgia Equality, leads supporters carrying boxes of postcards into then-Gov. Nathan Deal’s office on March 2, 2016. Representatives from gay rights groups delivered copies of 75,000 emails to state leaders urging them to defeat so-called religious liberty legislation they believed would legalize discrimination. (Bob Andres/AJC)

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The Midtown Atlanta skyline is shown in the background as an employee works in Cargill's new office, Jan. 16, 2025, in Atlanta.  (Jason Getz/AJC)

Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com