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Permalink Reply by Jack Straw on March 21, 2012 at 2:55pm

RE:"Devon is the company for whom Mr Mitchel, he who perfected horizontal drilling, works for."

George Mitchell was the "Mitchell" behind the E&P company Mitchell Energy.

And indeed, George Mitchell perfected long offset horizontal drilling with multi-stage fracing.

George Mitchell retired, selling his company to Devon.

Mitchell was a rich man before selling to Devon.

George Mitchell is an extremely rich man after selling to Devon.

George Mitchell (and his wife Cynthia) are famous for many things; including their many charitable contributions.

George Mitchell would likely chuckle at the thought that he worked for Devon.

George Mitchell is a great American; one of the greatest American's that almost no one has heard about.

Google "George P. Mitchell" and you can learn about this son of Greek emigrants.

Anyone who benefits from the Marcellus or Utica owes Geoge Mitchell a GREAT Deal of thanks.

 

OBTW, Larry Nichols is another American we can be proud of.

 

JS 

  

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Jim Litwinowicz on March 22, 2012 at 3:18am

Jack all good points.  I just didn't feel like posting a long explanation of how it all played out. Just wanted people to know he would be on the tube if they were interested.

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Permalink Reply by Jack Straw on March 22, 2012 at 7:06am

RE:"I just didn't feel like posting a long explanation of how it all played out."

I well understood that.

George Mitchell is one of my heroes.

I wanted to "beat the drum" so that others could understand that whatever benefit they derive from the Marcellus or the Utica, there is one man for whom they owe a great debt of gratitude.

George Mitchell perservered for many years; enduring ridicule, until he was able to perfect the technology that allowed exploitation of the Barnett Shale; technology that has made exploitation of all the other oil and gas shales possible.

Everyone is familiar with the names "Steve Jobs, Bill Gates"; almost no one has heard of George Mitchell (and George Mitchell was also a "nice" person; at lot of people consider Jobs and Gates to have crappy personalities).

 

All IMHO,

                JS

 

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Permalink Reply by Jim Litwinowicz on March 22, 2012 at 7:31am

I knew that Devon had bought out/merged with his firm but I thought he was still working for them. Could he be doing consulting work for them? That is a very common arrangement after a buyout/merger.
it is a shame he hasn't been credited with such a game changing technology. Perhaps CNBC will do one of their hour long evening shows on him and what he went through to perfect this. That would be fascinating to see just how difficult it was to get all the problems solved. And maybe help us outside observers appreciate the technology that much more.

One thing I would like to know is how much government assistance he received. Some claim that the government was instrumental in helping him complete his work. Any idea how much they helped him?

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