HOME Campus Life Carrizo completes phase 1 of campus gas-drilling process

Carrizo completes phase 1 of campus gas-drilling process

Written by Larissa M. Robinson

Tuesday, 08 July 2008 08:05 PM

It’s been quiet around Kenitres Johnson’s apartment lately. The communication senior said she enjoys waking up on her own and not being disturbed by the drilling rig that was stationed across the street from her apartment complex. “I could hear them in the morning,” she said. “It sounded like normal construction noises to me, but it would wake me up and my classes didn’t start until 10 a.m.” Johnson lives across the street from the university’s gas drilling site at Pecan and Mitchell streets behind the Continuing Education-Workforce Development Center. She and another student resident who lives near the site think the university’s first drilling phase was noisy but bearable. Carrizo Oil and Gas completed the first segment of the process and removed its Flex Four drilling rig from the site May 24. Aerospace engineering sophomore Bryan Kay said the noise annoyed him when he first moved into the Cottonwood Ridge North Apartments in April. “It didn’t bother me much after a while,” he said. Carrizo spokesman Michael Grimes said the fracture phase would “approximately start on August 1.” During that process, water and sand are pumped into a well to crack the Barnett Shale and release the minerals. The shale is a geologic formation located a mile below the Earth’s surface and stretches across at least 17 North Texas counties. Grimes said the presence of natural gas couldn’t be determined until the process begins. Johnson hopes this next phase won’t be nosier than the last. “It woke me up before I wanted to be up, and I have trouble sleeping as it is,” she said. The university’s drilling process began in November 2007 after it signed a gas contract leasing its mineral rights to Carrizo that year. The company gave the university $391,000 to explore for natural gas plus a one-time $400,000 payment. Communications Vice President Jerry Lewis said the university has not decided how it will spend that money if natural gas is found. Views: 1902 | E-mail   Be first to comment this article Powered by AkoComment Tweaked Special Edition v.1.4.6 AkoComment © Copyright 2004 by Arthur Konze - www.mamboportal.com All right reserved

Last Updated ( Wednesday, 24 September 2008 03:55 PM )

 

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