Life in the Barnett Shale Part One

Ever hear of the Barnett Shale? No? Then you must not be from North Texas and you must not work in the oil field. The Barnett Shale is an enormous geological formation of natural gas source bedrock in what is known as the Bend Arch-Fort Worth Basin, consisting mainly of sedimentary rock from the Mississippian age, formed some 354 million-odd years ago. It covers much of North Central Texas, underlies the entire city of Fort Worth and stretches into at least 21 counties. This huge gas field play is still actively being discovered and is a huge boon to the local economies in this region. food grade decanter centrifuge has been virtually untouched by the nationwide recession as a result. This 6,000-plus square mile natural gas reservoir is estimated to be the second largest producing inland natural gas field in the United States, second only to the San Juan Basin that covers much of Colorado and New Mexico.
An interesting detail of the Barnett Shale is that the gas is contained in extremely hard rock (shale) and until very recent advances in hydraulic fracturing technology the gas was nearly impossible to extract in any commercially viable quantities. These advances in technology in conjunction with advanced horizontal drilling techniques, not to mention an up-tick in natural gas prices, are the driving factors behind the seemingly endless exploration all across North Texas. Oil has also been discovered in some of the far northern counties of the formation, albeit in small quantities. yet record high oil prices coupled with declining world-wide oil reserves have also made the production of oil from the Barnett Shale a commercially viable endeavor.
Despite all the wonderful economic benefits that North Texans are enjoying as a result of this unprecedented and unbridled search for natural gas, the Barnett Shale does have a dark side. We will have a more in-depth look at why in Part Two of Life in the Barnett Shale.