Exxon Mobil Corp. is betting that a better way to frack will double the amount of oil it can pump from shale fields.
“There’s just a lot of oil being left in the ground,” CEO Darren Woods said June 1 at the Bernstein Strategic Decisions conference. “Fracking’s been around for a really long time, but the science of fracking is not well understood.”
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is the process of blasting water, sand and chemicals underground to break apart rock and keep it propped open for oil to flow out. Though the technology gave rise to the U.S. shale boom, only about 10% of the oil in a reservoir is recovered using current techniques. Better drilling and fracking methods may prove critical as output growth from shale fields slows.
