Houston, 26 July (Argus) — Houston billionaire George Mitchell, who pioneered shale drilling techniques in the 1980s and 1990s that enabled the unprecedented expansion of US unconventional production, died today. He was 94.
Mitchell headed US upstream independent Mitchell Energy & Development, which worked through years of trial and error with horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques to unleash the huge natural gas deposits trapped in the Barnett shale formation of north Texas. Mitchell sold his company to Devon Energy for more than $3bn in 2002, but his discoveries in the Barnett spurred the nation's shale boom.
Mitchell was a long-time advocate of tapping the US' own oil and gas resources, but also spoke frequently about “responsible” development of energy resources.
In addition to his work in energy, Mitchell was also a prolific real estate developer and philanthropist. He redeveloped his hometown of Galveston's historic Strand District and founded the nation's first master-planned community in the 1970s – The Woodlands – just north of Houston, Texas.
The Woodlands is now home to the corporate headquarters of US independent Anadarko. ExxonMobil is in the process of building a new campus there to consolidate much of its US operations, with 10,000 workers slated to move there starting in 2015.
A regular on the Forbes rich list – most recently listed with a net worth of $2 billion – Mitchell was born on Galveston Island in 1919 and matriculated from Texas A&M University in 1940 as a distinguished petroleum engineering graduate. Mitchell and his wife, Cynthia Woods Mitchell, formed a foundation that has given away millions of dollars to the arts and sciences. His latest gift to Texas A&M was earmarked for theorhetical physics research. In November 2012 the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation gifted $20mn to Texas A&M's George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy, making him the university's most generous donor at combined total of more than $95mn donated to the institution.
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