Gasbuggy was carried out by the Lawrence Livermore Radiation Laboratory and the El Paso Natural Gas Company, with funding from the Atomic Energy Commission. Its purpose was to determine if nuclear explosions could be useful in fracturing rock formations for natural gas extraction.Project Gasbuggy. Popular Mechanics, September 1967. The site, lying in the Carson National Forest, is approximately southwest of Dulce, New Mexico and east of Farmington, and was chosen because natural gas deposits were known to be held in sandstone beneath Leandro Canyon.A Good Start for Gasbuggy. Time, December 22, 1967. A device was placed at a depth of underground, then the well was backfilled before the device was detonated; a crowd had gathered to watch the detonation from atop a nearby butte.
