Bloomberg: GE Pushes Fracking Research With Lab in Bet on Shale Gas

General Electric Co. will spend $110 million on a research lab in Oklahoma City to study ways to improve extraction of hard-to-reach oil and gas deposits, including hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling.

The facility will hire as many as 125 engineers and scientists in the coming months and will eventually expand its research to more conventional drilling techniques, Chief Technology Officer Mark Little said in a telephone interview.

Oil and gas is GE’s fastest-growing segment, with revenue up 57 percent to $15.2 billion since 2009, and Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt is betting that other divisions can profit as drillers tap more shale formations. The center will join labs from Shanghai to Rio de Janeiro and be the only one focused on a single GE business, Little said.  MORE