On His 100th Birthday, George Mitchell Would Have Been Astounded by What His Fracking Technology has Wrought
An undated photo provided by Exxon Mobil shows drilling rigs which are part of the company's operations in the Permian Basin of Texas.
Daniel Stober / ExxonMobil
The late George P. Mitchell, who would have turned 100 on May 21, was a Houston-based businessman, real estate developer and innovative philanthropist credited with developing fracking and horizontal drilling technology to profitably produce shale gas. He also insisted that oil and gas extraction be conducted responsibly.
For decades, conventional wisdom dictated that there were no oil and gas resources in the areas south and west of the Permian Basin. I absorbed this assumption while growing up in Midland, the daughter of a petroleum engineer.
But after many years of working for Mitchell and the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation, I've learned that oil and gas development — and views of far West Texas energy — are anything but conventional. These resources always existed in the region; it was the technology to extract them that did not until Mitchell unlocked them.
