Chestnut CEO: Better Communication Might Have Prevented Denton Ban
On election night, voters in Denton, Texas, a city of about 113,000 people northwest of Dallas, voted to ban fracking within the city limits. Appeals were immediately filed; Denton is in oil and gas country – in the Barnett Shale – where fossil fuel resources are not only creating significant growth for the industry, but also lining the coffers of local municipalities and governmental entities within the state.
To find out more about what the ban means, and what lies ahead, Rigzone interviewed Mark A. Plummer, CEO and owner of Chestnut Exploration Companies, headquartered in Richardson, a suburb of Dallas, Texas. Plummer has held numerous engineering positions within the industry, where he served as a production engineer, a senior engineer managing upper-Gulf Coast properties and an offshore operations, exploitation and completion engineer.
Rigzone: What is the likely result of the ban, and could it spread to other municipalities?
Plummer: This ban is interesting. I’ve been in the industry over 30 years, and I’ve seen a lot of tactics by opponents of hydrocarbon companies as they’ve tried to slow down the progress of America’s energy independence. This is one more example of it. A town mainly got irritated at one operator, so they decided to take matters into their own hands and tried to ban fracking.
Rigzone: The ban seemed to be prompted by a disagreement about setbacks. New wells were subject to a 1,200-foot setback, but older wells that were drilled again using horizontal drilling were much closer to residences, and were not subject to the setback. How did this happen; how did it come to this?
Plummer: The Denton area is on the eastern edge of the Barnett shale, and heading west from Denton, the area is highly drilled and highly explored. There are a lot of wells up there now, and there have been a lot of wells up there for some time.
Before the economic downturn of 2009, when the price of natural gas was high – at $10-plus per million cubic feet (MMCF) – North Dallas saw an explosion of economic growth. When there is economic growth, you need new places for people to live, and the cheapest places to live are the outer edges of the suburbs, and that’s where Denton is. So, Denton is growing at a time when the industry is using new technologies to develop and frack the Barnett Shale. And finally, the two met, just like the surf up against the coast. And sometimes, because of that friction, you get some erosion.
123
View Full Article
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.
- Falcon Oil Declares Commercial Flow Test Results for Shenandoah Well
- Macquarie Strategists Expect Brent Oil Price to Grind Higher
- Japan Failing to Meet Corporate Demand for Clean Power: Amazon
- UK Oil Regulator Publishes New Emissions Reduction Plan
- Pennsylvania County Joins List of Local Govts Suing Big Oil over Climate
- PetroChina Posts Higher Annual Profit on Higher Production
- US, SKorea Launch Task Force to Stop Illicit Refined Oil Flows into NKorea
- McDermott Settles Reficar Dispute
- Russian Navy Enters Warship-Crowded Red Sea Amid Houthi Attacks
- USA Commercial Crude Oil Inventories Increase
- New China Climate Chief Says Fossil Fuels Must Keep a Role
- Oil Demand Outpaces Expectations, Testing Calculus on Peak Crude
- House Passes Protecting American Energy Production Act
- TotalEnergies Restarts Production in Denmark's Biggest Gas Field
- USA Oil and Gas Job Figures Jump
- Republican Lawmakers Say IEA Has Abandoned Energy Security Mission
- Blockchain Demands Attention in Oil and Gas
- Houthis Warn Saudi Arabia of Retaliation If It Backs USA Attacks
- Macquarie Sees USA Oil Production Exiting 2024 at 14MM Barrels Per Day
- Summer Pump Prices Set to Hit $4 a Gallon Just as Americans Hit the Road
- Chinese Mega Company Makes Major Oilfield Discovery
- VIDEO: Missile Attack Kills Crew Transiting Gulf of Aden
- Norway Regulator Blasts Proposal to Halt New Oil and Gas Permits
- Chinese Mega Company Makes Another Major Oilfield Discovery
- New China Climate Chief Says Fossil Fuels Must Keep a Role
- What Is the Biggest Risk to Offshore Oil and Gas Personnel in 2024?
- Vessel Sinks in Red Sea After Missile Strike
- Exxon Rights in Stabroek Do Not Apply to Hess Merger with Chevron: Hess
- Analysts Reveal Latest Oil Price Outlook Following OPEC+ Cut Extension
- Equinor Makes Discovery in North Sea