What Is The Barnett Shale?

Located in North Texas, the Barnett Shale is one of the nation's highest producing onshore gas fields. Since its discovery in 1981, exploration and drilling activities have expanded to cover as many as 25 counties, and potential production estimates continue to rise.

Natural gas reserves of the Barnett Shale are caught in cracks and crevices as far as 13,000 feet underground, with much of the field resting below residential neighborhoods, and therefore a great deal of this valuable resource was considered inaccessible in the past. However, due to recent advances in technology, we are now able to drill holes thousands of feet into the ground, and from there, drill horizontally for up to a mile to reach the targeted reserves. These refined and improved techniques allow us to explore and develop more heavily populated regions of the gas field-from thousands of feet underground-without disturbing its homeowners.

If developed properly, this valuable onshore gas field has the potential to produce billions of cubic feet of gas each day for the next 20-30 years. Gas production in the Barnett Shale is booming-and that's great news for our nation in this time of slowed domestic gas production.