George Mitchell, “the Father of Shale.”
George & his wife Cynthia committed $35 million toward the construction of two physics buildings at Texas A&M where George studied petroleum engineering.
George Mitchell of Galveston, Texas passed away July 26, 2013. Mitchell earned a degree from Texas A&M University in petroleum engineering and then not only started an independent oil and gas company, Mitchell Energy & Development Corp, but he built it into a Fortune 500 Company.
Mitchell had a passion for technology. When so many large oil and gas companies were interested in shale gas but could not get the gas to flow, or make the breakthrough in fracking, Mitchell spent ten years and $6 million to make that breakthrough.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Mitchell pioneered the technique of fracturing and horizontal drilling in the Barnett Shale of Texas. He is also credited for pioneering the lower Bakken shale. This technique spread like wildfire and spawned a gas boom across North America.
As companies adopted Mitchell’s Techniques to oil fields, crude production has more than quadrupled in the Bakken formation in North Dakota and Montana in the past three years and U.S. gas production rose 25 percent in the past decade, pushing prices to a 10-year low in April 2012.
A biography on the website of the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation states, “Against the prevailing sentiments both within and outside the company, George persisted through 17 years of failures and incremental successes.” The biography goes on to say, “Finally, as he approached his 80th birthday, gas from these experimental wells began to flow in hugely profitable volumes.”
During his career, he participated in drilling approximately 8,000 wells, including more than 1,000 wildcats. In his later years, Mitchell became an advocate for tighter regulation and safer practices around hydraulic fracturing.
Mitchells Energy & Development Corp. was acquired by Devon Energy in 2002.
Due to Mitchell’s consistent, extraordinary vision and determination, fracturing has since driven a boom in oil and gas production credited with substantially improving U.S. energy security.
Mr. Mitchell will forever be remembered as “the Father of Shale.”
Fracking facts:
— About 1.6 million jobs in the U.S. are related to natural gas development.
— U.S. natural gas output has grown 51 percent over the last five years.
Sources: IHS Global Insight report for America’s Natural Gas Alliance; McKinsey Global Institute
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