Some shale formations in Europe and China are impervious to drilling techniques that opened vast reserves of natural gas and oil from Texas to Pennsylvania, said Rex Tillerson, Exxon Mobil Corp.’s chief executive officer.
New methods and tools will need to be invented to tap many of the shale fields that energy companies and governments expect eventually to yield a bonanza of fuel, Tillerson said during a meeting with analysts in New York today.
Exxon, the largest U.S. gas producer after its 2010 acquisition of shale driller XTO Energy, failed in its first two efforts to crack gas-rich shale fields in Poland. Gas discovered in a pair of wells finished during the final three months of last year didn’t flow, even after the company used high-pressure jets of water and sand to create fissures in the rocks.
“Some of the shales don’t respond as well to hydraulic fracturing,” Tillerson said during a meeting with reporters after his presentation to analysts. “It’s going to take research and time in the lab to understand that.”