Barnett Shale Expo drills into the hearts and minds of the public

by Erin Rice

There was nothing particularly special about the Barnett Shale Expo that took place on Saturday, March 29. There were no protests, no major announcements (hey, there are puppies under the shale formation!), no really distinguishing characteristics of any kind. Unless, of course, you take into account the approximately 1000 people* throughout the day milling about the Fort Worth Convention Center visiting booths.

According to speculation, the expo and its number of attendees doubled in size from last year. Seems that the money that comes from oil and gas drilling is a popular feature. This year's "theme" focused on "compromise and cooperation creating opportunities for residents, businesses and communities of the Barnett Shale." The majority of booths seemed to stay out of the feel-good theme. They were there to push their products and give away various candies, clothing, and other chotski. Several small players made up the bulk of booths, hawking various side supplies and contract services for your drilling needs. It was the four big players, however, that caught my attention.

Chesapeake Energy, Devon Energy, XTO Energy, and EnCana (energy, I presume) all had booths, if you can call them that, spanning the front entrance of the convention center's main hall. The booths were more like small apartment spaces, and in the case of XTO, a ski lodge?

The fact that these companies showed up to represent their product, was not in itself that interesting. The difference between sales pitches, however, said a lot (potentially) about the companies present. Surrounded by those handy little pamphlets, here's what each company would like you to know.

Chesapeake - This company's sales pitch is very general. They want you to remember that they are the largest independent producer of natural gas in Texas, a gas that they claim "you can't get greener than." Some pamphlet buzz words include, "exciting," "successful," and "security." The informational is capped off by a somewhat apocalyptic picture of a gas drill towering before what appears to be the Fort Worth skyline.

EnCana - This company based out of Calgary considers itself to be "energy for the people." Which is a good pitch, because I fear to think what would happen if tigers or bears harnessed the power of natural gas. The results would certainly be horrific. EnCana investment focuses on three core areas, two of which are a little touchy feely: "family and community wellness" and "community development." Communities of people, that is. This is an important point to remember. Their brochure highlights the various contributions they've made to groups like Strengthen Our Youth anti-bullying assemblies.

Devon - Devon's pitch is probably the most compelling of the four. In 2005 they partnered up with Fountain Quail Water Management to start recycling their frac water. If you are not familiar with the fracing process, here's the "Fraccing for Dummies" version. Basically all the energy companies pump a water mixture into their wells to fracture the wells so they can obtain more gas. The frac water that comes up is mixed with all sorts of solids from inside the ground, largely chlorides. These things make the water icky. Most of the companies cram the frac water into disposal wells far underground where we'll never see it again, thus using and continually depleting our fresh water supply. Each gas well requires one to four million gallons of water to fracture. Which is a lot of freaking water.

According to the frac engineer at the Devon booth, they are now reclaiming as much as 20% of their frac water, by sending it off to Fountain Quail, who distill the water which is then reused to frac more wells.

XTO - The XTO ultra-plush ski lodge in a convention center was a bit of an anomaly to me. I walked around, checking out the leather couches, thick wood coffee table, and non-crackling fire, trying to figure out what their message was. Finally, with the help of one of their pamphlets, it dawned on me. Their message was the good life. More specifically, the ease of the good life. Sit back and relax while we send you checks. Better yet, according to the pamphlet, you don't even need to wait for the check. They have direct deposit and a handy, dandy online system that allows you to keep track of your gassy worth without every having to leave your big, log house.

As I said in the beginning, the Barnett Shale Expo was not much unlike any other Expo you would go to. A bunch of people milling about booths trying to sell things to other people trying to sell things. There were no protesters, nothing news-worthy in that sense. But then again, who wants to be the sourpuss at a circle jerk.

*This is a rough estimate coming from someone who is not good at making rough estimates.

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