in 1997, nick steinsberger, an engineer of mitchell energy (now part of devon energy), applied the slickwater fracturing technique, using more water and higher pump pressure than previous fracturing techniques, which was used in east texas in the barnett shale of north texas. in 1998, the new technique proved to be successful when the first 90 days gas production from the well called s.h. griffin no. 3 exceeded production of any of the company's previous wells. this new completion technique made gas extraction widely economical in the barnett shale, and was later applied to other shales, including the eagle ford and bakken shale. george p. mitchell has been called the "father of fracking" because of his role in applying it in shales. the first horizontal well in the barnett shale was drilled in 1991, but was not widely done in the barnett until it was demonstrated that gas could be economically extracted from vertical wells in the barnett.