Fracking | The Source Rock

July 15, 2021·46 min·4 clips

An elderly couple's home collapses in the night from a mysterious gas leak, hinting at a hidden industrial cause.

The episode opens dramatically in December 2007 with Richard and Thelma Payne, an elderly Ohio couple, whose suburban home collapses after a natural gas explosion caused by a nearby fracking well. This scene grounds the broader fracking controversy before the story moves back in time to explain how fracking came to be used so widely. Hydraulic fracturing was invented in the 1940s but largely dismissed for decades as too expensive. The episode then introduces George Mitchell, founder of Mitchell Energy, whose primary asset — a 300,000-acre gas field in Wise County, Texas — is estimated to have only ten years of gas remaining as of the late 1970s. The son of Greek immigrants, Mitchell had built his company by identifying natural gas as an undervalued resource and securing cheap leasing rights the major companies ignored. Facing his field's depletion, Mitchell learns from geologist Jim Henry that the Barnett Shale — 8,000 feet beneath his Wise County field — might hold significant reserves if hydraulic fracturing could be made to work on its uniquely dense rock. Despite internal skepticism and enormous costs — $35 million spent by 1992 with minimal results — Mitchell refuses to abandon the effort. In 1997, engineer Nick Steinsberger is put in charge of the Barnett Shale drilling program, carrying the weight of the company's future. A mixing error on one well sends thin, chemical-light fluid down the well rather than the usual expensive thickened mixture — and the well produces comparable gas volumes. Steinsberger realizes this accidental approach could reduce per-well costs from $300,000 to $85,000. He pitches the idea to Mitchell executives, faces heavy skepticism from a senior engineer who argues that water will hydrate shale clay and reduce brittleness, but gets approval for a three-well trial. Steinsberger's new technique — called slick-water fracking — involves using twice the water volume and sending sand down more slowly and later in the process to hold fractures open. On June 11, 1998, well SH Griffin number four is fracked using this approach, and after a five-day wait, begins producing 1.5 million cubic feet of gas per day — nearly double projections. Production remains stable over three months, unlike typical fracked wells that decline rapidly. A newly hired geologist then applies modern measurement techniques and determines the Barnett Shale holds 185 billion cubic feet per square mile — four times earlier estimates. Mitchell attempts to sell the company, touring energy company representatives through his field in 1999, but neither major operators like ExxonMobil nor smaller firms like Devon Energy will meet his price. During the dot-com boom of 2000, Mitchell is unable to attract any buyers despite his proven production numbers. He abandons the sale, instead directing his company to acquire 600,000 acres of Barnett Shale leasing rights and reopening old wells with slick-water fracking. Production jumps tenfold. By late 2000, Devon Energy's Larry Nichols attends a Barnett Shale symposium in Fort Worth and is stunned by Mitchell Energy's production data, setting the stage for what will happen next in the series.

As heard by us

A patient account of shale, doubt, and the long grind of extracting gas.

American Innovations opens with Richard and Thelma Payne in their split level home outside Cleveland before widening into the long fight to pull gas from shale.

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Why you'd press play

You want a shale story that starts with a cracked wall and ends with a business reckoning.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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