The Barnett Shale
The Barnett Shale of North Texas is a geologic formation under 16 to 21 counties near Fort Worth which has become one of the most prolific natural gas finds in the continental United States.
You can read more on the history of the Barnett Shale by clicking here: Barnett Shale
With the exception of Tarrant County, most of the drilling has been in rural counties which surround Fort Worth. these smaller, rural, sparsely populated counties have experienced tremendous wealth creation and the growing pains which come from extensive oil and gas activity.
The elected officials recognized that the increased tax revenue from the newly-found mineral wealth was not enough to repair the damages from the drilling activity and sought to engage the oil and gas companies for equitable solutions.
I have gathered documents from several of the rural counties and have made the information available to our commissioners. It is provided here for your benefit in hopes of getting the correct information into the public domain and dispel any anxiety or rumors about whether the county commissioners will kill the oil and gas boom we are experiencing.
Progress is something we can all agree on, but it should not come at a cost of our safety or the destruction of the road system we depend upon. The counties below were able to arrive at a solution which allowed them to recover damages from the oil companies responsible for excess damages to their road system and simultaneously allowed the oil companies to benefit from goodwill and good corporate citizenship.
The following counties are all adjacent to Fort Worth (Tarrant County).
Here is a slide presentation developed by Commissioner Richard Roan of Hood County. Granbury is the county seat:
