May 29--CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- will eliminate 40 jobs in Charleston by the end of the summer.

Cabot is consolidating its regional offices in Denver and Charleston into a new "north region" headquarters in Pittsburgh, company officials said Thursday night.

Cabot, West Virginia's fourth-largest natural gas producer, cited a "desire to improve efficiency" for its decision to shutter its eastern region office, which occupies three floors of the Huntington Banks building in downtown Charleston.

"Decisions that disrupt our employees lives are never easy, but we feel these changes will provide Cabot Oil & Gas the best and most efficient structure long-term," said Dan Dinges, Cabot's chief executive officer.

About 25 Cabot employees at the Charleston regional office have been asked to move to Pittsburgh, while 15 will be laid off, the company said.

"This is deeply disturbing," said Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper. "These are irreplaceable jobs."

The consolidation of the Charleston and Denver regional offices will allow Houston-based Cabot to increase drilling and exploration in what geologists call the Marcellus Shale formation, which extends throughout the Appalachian Basin, Dinges said.

Though the West Virginia regional office is closing, a dozen employees in Cabot's gas control and measurement department will remain in Charleston, the company said.

Cabot's move follows Chesapeake Energy's decision in February to close its regional headquarters in Charleston and cut 215 jobs. Days later, Columbia Natural Gas Transmission Corp. announced it was eliminating 95 workers in Charleston and another 75 employees across the state.

Cabot's eastern regional office primarily oversees operations in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Cabot also operates West Virginia district offices in Glasgow, Pineville and Danville.

The company has more than 150 workers throughout the state.

Last year, Cabot had 3,382 wells in the eastern region. The wells produced about 69 million cubic feet of natural gas daily.

"They've been targeting northeast Pennsylvania with the Marcellus Shale development," said Corky DeMarco, executive director of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association. "They drilled a lot of wells here in 2005 through 2007. Now they're targeting Pennsylvania."

DeMarco speculated that most of the Cabot jobs leaving Charleston pay $60,000 on average.

"The impact to the area isn't pretty," he said. "Their production numbers have been fairly high.