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<strong>Dan</strong> <strong>Hughes</strong> biography-chapter 21_Layout 1 2/16/2016 1:41 PM Page 146<br />
<strong>Dan</strong>, <strong>Dan</strong> Allen, and Dudley at <strong>Dan</strong> Allen’s induction into All American Wildcatters<br />
in 2001.<br />
FAYETTEVILLE SHALE<br />
Back on American soil and following the success in the Barnett<br />
Shale, <strong>Dan</strong> began working other areas with the idea of finding other<br />
formations that might be a source bed for horizontal drilling as the<br />
Barnett Shale had been. In the Arkhoma Basin, <strong>Hughes</strong> & <strong>Hughes</strong><br />
had drilled a shallow well on a large lease block acquired with Ken<br />
McClain in the 1970s. <strong>The</strong>re was an indication of some activity in the<br />
area on a formation called the Fayetteville Shale, which was the same<br />
age geologically as the Barnett Shale production. Several companies<br />
were leasing in the area and horizontal wells were being drilled on<br />
the play.<br />
He hired Gary Hart, an old friend and geologist from Oklahoma<br />
City to work on the trend for him. Gary mapped the Fayetteville<br />
trend, extended it into Arkansas about 40 miles ahead of the area<br />
that was active. Most of the land men in that area were busy, but <strong>Dan</strong><br />
found Whit Porter, a landman from Mansfield, Louisiana and leased<br />
146
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