Overview of Haynesville Shale: A Star in the Making

Haynesville is the star of its own movie directed by Gregory Kallenberg. Haynesville premiered at South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival last March. The film explores Haynesville at two levels: one is the personal level and the other is the big picture in the future of energy and how Haynesville fits.

Haynesville Background

Many large oil and gas companies have projects in the Haynesville formation in East Texas, Northwest Louisiana and a little bit of Arkansas because the shale is one of the more productive gas formations. Haynesville consists of clay-sized particles and has an ultra-low permeability rock formation from 150 million years ago in the Jurassic age. The shale play, also known as Louisiana Shale and Shreveport Shale, may have an estimated 250 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas from 10,000 to 13,000 feet underground.

Haynesville Shale sits below Cotton Valley and Elm Grove Field with drilling occurring in the parishes of Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, DeSoto, Red River and Webster. The industry expects to see Haynesville to produce for 17 to 25 more years.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal oversaw the passing of a tax credit bill to encourage more vehicles run on compressed natural gas (CNG). Senator Nick Gautreaux has authored two bills, one for the creation of the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Revolving Loan Fund Program to provide financial aid to local governments working to convert to vehicles to use cleaner fuels. The other bill allows political subdivisions to buy or lease vehicles running on alternative fuels.

Oil and Gas Companies in Haynesville Shale Play

Exxon Mobil Corporation has submitted an application to create three new drilling and production units for the exploration and production of gas on Converse Field in Sabine Parish.

In a joint venture with EXCO Resources, U.K.'s BG Group bought properties in Haynesville and Bossier shales from Southwestern Energy Co. for $355.8 million. Cubic Energy Inc. has the bulk of its acreage in Northwest Louisiana in Bossier/Haynesville shale play and in Cotton Valley. The exploration and production company works with oil and gas assets in Texas and Louisiana.

First Reserve Corp. and Nabors Industries Ltd. have a $1 billion joint venture with NFR Energy LLC, which has gas wells in Haynesville in Texas and Louisiana. Crimson Exploration has completed the drilling of its first well in Bossier in San Augustine County.

Thanks to a joint venture with Petrohawk Resources, Mainland Resources is a successful latecomer to the Haynesville. Mainland plans to add more wells while watching for expired leases since others have bought or leased most of the land. The company has been producing since the first of 2009 in DeSoto Parish.