Posted on 08/07/2013 12:53:11 PM PDT by Hojczyk
Mr Mitchell was the embodiment of the American dream. His father was a poor Greek immigrant, a goatherd who later ran a shoeshine shop in Galveston, Texas. Mr Mitchell had to work his way through university, but graduated top of his class. He left a fortune of more than $2 billion and a Texas landscape studded with examples of his philanthropy: he was particularly generous to university research departments and to Galveston.
Mr Mitchell was also the embodiment of the entrepreneurial spirit. He did not discover shale gas and oil: geological surveys had revealed them decades before he started. He did not even invent fracking: it had been in use since the 1940s.
His stubbornness was, though, his most important quality. Investors and friends scoffed, but he spent two decades poking holes in the land around Fort Worth. “I never considered giving up,” he said, “even when everyone was saying, ‘George, you’re wasting your money’.” Then, in 1998, with Mr Mitchell approaching his 80s, his team hit on the idea of substituting water for gunky drilling fluids. This drastically cut the cost of drilling and turned the Barnett Shale into a gold mine.
(Excerpt) Read more at economist.com ...
His father was a goatherd? Really?
A goat herder perhaps?
Apparently also the goats ran the shoeshine shop. That is one special goatherd.
You never heard of shepherds?
We were fracing long before 1940.
Are you sure about that? The info I keep finding says:
The first experimental treatment to “Hydrafrac” a well for stimulation was performed in the Hugoton gas field in Grant County, Kansas, in 1947 by Stanolind Oil.
In 1948, the Hydrafrac process was introduced more widely to the industry in a paper written by J.B. Clark of Stanolind Oil. A patent was issued in 1949, with an exclusive license granted to the Halliburton Oil Well Cementing Company (Howco) to pump the new Hydrafrac process. Howco performed the first two commercial fracturing treatments—one, costing USD 900, in Stephens County, Oklahoma, and the other, costing USD 1,000, in Archer County, Texas—on March 17, 1949,
Hydraulic Fracturing, History of an enduring technology
http://www.spe.org/jpt/print/archives/2010/12/10Hydraulic.pdf
I knew a Greek Immigrant named Erinakes, a geologist from Rhode Island, who helped to develop the Barnett Shale for oil and gas in the Fort Worth area. A guy named “George Mitchell” hardly seems to be a Greek name, maybe Irish, though
Sorry Thack I got stuck on the fracing part, I lost an Uncle in the 20’s when the Nitro he was hauling to a well exploded, they never found him!
Wow, guess quick is the way to go but dang.
Sorry to hear of your loss. However that's not for frac-ing. That is for Perforating.
He did not even invent fracking: it had been in use since the 1940s... Then, in 1998, with Mr Mitchell approaching his 80s, his team hit on the idea of substituting water for gunky drilling fluids. This drastically cut the cost of drilling and turned the Barnett Shale into a gold mine.
Sir I’m very familure with the process of fracing, been in the business for about 40 years, what I was saying is back in the 20’s dropping several quarts of nitro down hole was the method used then. These men were called Shooters, many times these were open hole shots. The use of shape charged perforation came much later as did Hydraulic Fracturing. The first perforating gun was developed and patented in 1939, the first commercial use of hydaulic fracturing was in 1949.
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