[Ozark Tom]

Substitute enhanced directional horizontal drilling for fracking.

Fracking began at least as far back as 1940's. Fracking of horizontal borehole in shale with temporary plugs to break the play into stages is more recent.

See page 55 for beginning of tight shale commentary--page 65 & 66 for illustrations:

http://segim.northwestern.edu/docs/bazant.pdf

[RayChuang88]

But what it has done is turn the supposedly impossible-to-extract Marcellus Formation into a major natural gas resource. States like Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia are making a lot of money from getting that natural gas in the western part of that Shale.

No wonder the USA has such a huge surplus of natural gas--it is rapidly displacing coal as the primary fuel for electric power plants.