Texas oilman, fracking pioneer Mitchell dies at 94

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Billionaire Texas oilman, developer and philanthropist George P. Mitchell, considered the father of fracking, died Friday at his home in Galveston, his family said.

He was 94.

Mitchell, the son of a Greek immigrant who ran a dry cleaning business in Galveston, became one of the wealthiest men in the U.S. He is considered the chief pioneer of hydraulic fracturing, the now common industry process known as fracking that uses chemicals with water under high pressure to crack open rock formations and release oil and natural gas.

The process has led to an energy industry boom.

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Worth Reading the Article.

[cudjo]

Very impressive man

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Mr. Mitchell’s role in championing new drilling and production techniques like hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” is credited with creating an unexpected natural gas boom in the United States. In a letter to President Obama last year, Daniel Yergin, the energy scholar and author, proposed that Mr. Mitchell be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

“It is because of him that we can talk seriously about ‘energy independence,’ ” he said. (Mr. Mitchell did not receive the award.)

I'm sure Obama focused like a laser on it.

[Valin]

George Phydias Mitchell’s Story

 

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The Wildcatter and the Bookie

 

When the war ended, the Mitchell family moved to Houston where George’s brother, Johnny, had begun to make inroads in the oil business. George started work as an independent consulting geologist and petroleum engineer, taking a modest fee and a small piece of the prospects he developed. In 1947, George bought a small interest in one of his exploration clients. Johnny Mitchell joined the company as well, pairing the brothers under the banner Oil Drilling, Inc. with its founding partner, oil broker H. Merlyn Christie.

 

At the wildcatting exploration outfit, George would do the geology and engineering while Johnny and Mr. Christie would sell the deals, often over the lunch counter at the Esperson Drug Store in downtown Houston. With George’s success at finding petroleum, they soon assembled a stable of ready investors from among some of the area’s wealthiest residents.

 

The discovery of one of the largest gas fields in North America began with a deal presented to the team by a Chicago bookie in 1952. The lease acreage being sold was in an area north of Fort Worth known as “The Wildcatters’ Graveyard,” but George saw something in the geology that others had missed. So, Oil Drilling, Inc., along with their loyal investors, bought the deal and within short order drilled 13 successful wells that proved George’s thesis. By the end of 1953, the small outfit from Houston risked it all to lease over 300,000 acres in the play. That North Texas discovery became the backbone of the company for decades to come as well as the major source of the wealth of George and Cynthia Mitchell.

 

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