Technology has paved the way for oil and gas development since 1901 and continues to extend the reach of the industry.
Texas is globally recognized for its energy industry. It was for decades the main American place of oil and gas production and still remains the epicenter of innovation, research, and technology in the oil and gas world.
Texas is also now home to vast and some newly discovered natural gas reserves. Even beyond the Lone Star State, natural gas potential nationwide is immense – containing more than 30,000 Tcf, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). With natural gas, we have the means of not only securing our energy future but also building a bridge to a clean energy future. With ingenuity and new technologies, our domestic energy supply and our economy will boom once again.
In 1901, Anthony Lucas, an immigrant mining engineer from Austria, successfully tapped the Spindletop gusher in Southeast Texas by drilling one of the first purpose built wells. The Lucas Gusher produced some 100,000 b/d of oil. As a result, Beaumont became one of the first oil boomtowns and Southeast Texas was forever changed. The area’s population more than tripled in the three months following the gusher. More than 600 new companies were chartered and nearly 300 new active wells began drilling for black gold. Texas became the Texas we know, not just in oil and gas production but also in the “can-do” attitude of is people.
Lucas’ technological advancements had a global impact and proved the extent to which an economy can benefit from utilizing domestic natural resources. Spindletop was just the beginning of the oil industry’s transformation into successful drilling and production. Over the past century, the industry transformed, building off of Lucas’ original contribution. Today’s energy suppliers employ new combinations of technology like the drilling of horizontal wells with- hydraulic fracturing. This environmentally-sound practice offers access to otherwise hard-to-reach, and hard to produce untapped reserves, thereby bolstering America’s domestic energy supply and increasing our energy independence. Shale gas, made only possible the last five years or so is the biggest success of the industry in three decades.
According to the IEA’s World Outlook from 2009, the world’s supply of natural gas could last nearly 300 years. A great deal of that energy is right here in the US. By incorporating the latest, environmentally-safe drilling technologies, our nation can take great strides toward reaching extensive natural gas reserves.
Hydraulic fracturing plays an important role in transforming the oil and gas industry given that it allows for a highly efficient way to increase America’s domestic energy supply. Energy companies will not only be able to access deposits, which were considered out a reach a few years ago, but also provide a significant boost for the economy. Tax revenues for the state and federal government, new jobs, and a sheer abundance of US energy resources - will all result from hydraulic fracturing.
The current rates of America’s energy consumption demand new energy policies. So, why not use the cleanest, safest of all fossil fuels – natural gas? EPA in its 2004 “Study of Potential Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing of Coalbed Methane Wells on Underground Sources of Drinking Water” reports hydraulic fracturing poses little threat to water contamination.
Implementing this technology will increase domestic supply in an environmentally friendly manner - positioning our nation for a cleaner, more secure energy future.
Lucas helped transform the US economy in 1901. Over a hundred years later, his legacy still impacts the oil and gas industry so extensively that many of his techniques are still employed today. If lawmakers fully understand the capability that drilling extended reach wells with hydraulic fracturing has on America’s well-being, we will be well-situated for a more secure economic future.
