This is a combination of sophisticated steerable drilling technology using modern micro-seismic imaging and advanced material sciences, to create webs of minuscule cracks in shale and release abundant trapped natural gas.
It should stimulate a boom in construction of gas-fired plants, given the huge new supplies of shale gas unlocked by the combination of deep horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
The combination of fracing and horizontal drilling, which extends the point of contact across the field, allowed U.S. fields such as the Barnett Shale producing region in north Texas long thought exhausted to be revitalized for production.
The combination of an endless wait for offshore drilling and severe rules that limit our ability to use these resources make it clear that current energy policy is an attempt by opponents of energy resource development to concede little now, for great political gains down the road.