Getting “Fracking” Facts Straight

This afternoon I attended the Metroplex Technology Business Council (MTBC)’s Tech Industry Luncheon at Prestonwood Country Club. Claude Cook, a patent attorney and former scientist for Exxon, and a renowned authority on oil and gas exploration, gave the facts of “Fracking” and the shale revolution.
Cook explained that hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” has been commercially used since 1949, and it wasn’t until a recent union with horizontal drilling that it’s created a new category of unconventional oil & gas and changed the future of the energy industry.   In an article by The Wall Street Journal titled, “In Search of the Spark … and the Next Big Thing,” it is mentioned that at the Unleashing Innovation conference held in Singapore, attendees were asked what they thought was the best innovation of recent times. Fracking Technology came in fourth place with 15 percent of attendees choosing it (behind GPS at 23 percent).

Cook went on to address the environmental concerns of Fracking, noting that there hasn’t been a single known case of groundwater being contaminated in Texas due to the hydraulic fracturing process.

The Metroplex Technology Business Council (MTBC) is the largest technology trade association in Texas, representing a quarter million employees through its 300 member companies.