Texas oilman, fracking pioneer Mitchell dies at 94

HOUSTON (AP) — Billionaire Texas oilman, developer and philanthropist George P. Mitchell, considered the father of fracking, died Friday at his home in Galveston, his family said.

He was 94.

Mitchell, the son of a Greek immigrant who ran a dry cleaning business in Galveston, became one of the wealthiest men in the U.S. His dogged pursuit of natural gas he and others knew were trapped in wide, thin layers of rock deep underground led to a revolution in oil and gas production in the U.S., and one that is expected to migrate around the world.

He pioneered the combination of horizontal drilling with hydraulic fracturing, the now-common industry process known generally as fracking. He figured out how to drill into and then along layers of gas-laden rock, then force a slurry of water, sand and chemicals under high pressure into the rock to crack it open and release the hydrocarbons.

Mitchell's family, on the family foundation website, said he died of natural causes while surrounded by relatives.

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