Posted on 06/07/2007 5:16:27 AM PDT by BGHater
With Fort Worth sitting on one of the nation's largest natural gas fields, 150-foot drilling rigs are rising over golf courses, churchyards, even tree-lined neighborhoods.
"If you don't have a gas well ... get one!" a billboard urges commuters zipping along a busy interstate near downtown.
But not everyone is celebrating the natural gas bonanza here, despite the 55,000 new jobs and extra $5.2 billion it brings to the North Texas economy each year.
Once confined to the lonely prairies, oil and gas exploration has gone urban. In Fort Worth, Los Angeles and other densely populated places, that sometimes pits neighbor against neighbor, forcing them to choose between preserving a tranquil neighborhood or cashing the monthly royalty checks a gas or oil well provides.
Some Fort Worth residents complain that large property owners are the only ones getting a windfall from the gas companies drilling under their land.
In some instances, entire neighborhoods are organizing to keep the wells out. They are worried about the drilling and extraction noise, heavy truck traffic, decreased property values and explosions. An XTO Energy worker was killed last year in a gas well explosion in nearby Forrest Hill.
"Believe me, if people weren't getting money, nobody would want this," said Don Young, who founded Fort Worth Citizens Against Neighborhood Drilling Ordinance.
With U.S. demand for natural gas soaring, the city has 500 active gas wells and permits for an additional 225, including 70 now being drilled.
Drilling takes about a month of round-the-clock work, first vertically and then horizontally into a rock formation called the Barnett Shale thousands of feet below. Then comes a week or so of "fracking" -- the hydraulic fracturing process that breaks through the dense, black rock and unlocks the natural gas within.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
Tight rock, using new technology implemented in recent years.
Back in the early 80s that you mention, the Barnett Shale was known to have gas that was considered unrecoverable.
Here’s a good rundown of the Top Drives.
http://www.lariatservices.com/images_large/lariatrig_14.html
This is the actual rig that the accident we’re talking about happened on. You’ll be surprised how quiet they are.
Anybody here in the oil industry, with knowledge of the Barnett Shale formation?
I was talking to someone Monday night who said the known boundary is shifting to the east. He was referring to the area north of Denton, and I’d like to know if that is true.
I’ve heard that the easternmost boundary is the Muenster Arch, but exactly how far east is that?
Ping to DG.
Gas drilling is hot again b/c the technology allows horizontal drilling and extraction. We won't see the vertical wells like the oil rigs side by side.
I hear they are only extracting 10% of what is down there
More info at the TRR site
you have freepmail
Ugh, poor fellow. We had a guy on a rig get caught in the chain that drove the rotary table. Caught him right about belt height. Was stepping over the chain instead of walking all the way around like you were supposed to. Was alive for a couple hours so they could get his wife there. Very sad. I was on the roustabout waiting list before that, took my name off afterwards. Was great money at the time. I stuck to pumping the wells, draining saltwater and cutting the weeds.
I imagine OSHA rules and common sense eliminate many of those hazards from back in the day. Still dangerous, I'm sure but some stuff was just over the top dangerous.
Thanks for the link. My driller buddy won’t be back in town ‘til next week.
Oh man, the Barnett Shale play now essentially extends from the Mexican border in west Texas to at least Tyler, Texas.
Some of that isn’t going to pan out, but it is huge.
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