Sumner County hosted a oil and gas summit at the Memorial Auditorium in Wellington to inform the public of the "oil and gas boom" that has swept across Sumner County.  Approximately 350 to 400 people were in attendence.  Representatives from Chesapeake Energy, Sand Ridge, and Shell Oil attended the summit to present information on their companies and their processes on drilling and hydraulic fracturing. 

Chesapeake currently has the only horizontal well in Sumner County, near Caldwell.  Sand Ridge has drilled 10 horizontal wells in Harper and Comanche counties and Shell Oil's first well is in Harper County.

If these companies hit oil in Kansas it will mean thousands of jobs and millions more dollars in at least eight counties. But the three major companies also caution residents: it's too early to say for sure how big this will be until they drill.