Haynesville Shale

Louisiana Department of Natural Resources - Updated Haynesville Shale Activity

The Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) updated recent activity by the industry in the Haynesville Shale in Louisiana.

The DNR said that as of September 27, 2012, there were 2,387 Haynesville Shale wells in Louisiana, with 2,107 of these wells currently producing.  An additional 188 wells have been permitted and are waiting on completions or other services.

The DNR reported that another 92 Haynesville Shale wells have been permitted, with drilling progressing on 29 wells and no drilling activity yet on 63 wells.  A map detailing the location of these wells is here.

Forest Oil Restarts Haynesville Shale Development

Forest Oil (FST) has reentered the Haynesville Shale and added a rig to this area.  The decision was based on the effectiveness of the restricted rate program that the company used on seven Haynesville wells in 2010. Another factor that motivated the company to deploy a rig here was a reduction in drilling and completion costs over the last year.   

Forest Oil believes that these seven wells will have an estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) that exceeds the 6.5 Bcfe curve. The company has drilled and completed its first Haynesville Shale well here and reported an initial restricted production rate of 12 million cubic feet of natural gas equivalents per day.

Conference Call Comments

“We resumed the Haynesville Shale drilling program based on the success of the restricted rate program combined with decreasing completion costs. Our first well in 2011 was completed for a restricted rate of 12 million cubic feet per day with over 8,600 psi of flowing casing pressure. We increased the number of frac stages on this well to 16. The comparable well that we drilled last year has produced 2.8 Bcf and continues to produce approximately 8 million cubic feet per day over the first 240 days of production.”

“This indicates the EURs from the restricted rate well should be in the order of 8 Bcf or an increase of approximately 25% over our earlier EURs. These results yield economic wells with the rate of return greater than 20% even in today's gas price environment. Further cost reductions will be obtained through pad drilling in 2012, as we have purchased a rig walking system to use with our lantern rigs for this area.”

Source

Comstock Resources - Haynesville Shale Update - Third Quarter of 2011

Comstock Resources (CRK) reported an operational update on the Haynesville play for the third quarter of 2011. 

Comstock Resources drilled 51 gross or 21.6 net wells in the Haynesville Shale in 2011, and also completed 65 gross or 35.7 net wells during the first nine months of 2011. The company said that the average production rate of wells put onto production in 2011 was 10 million cubic feet of natural gas equivalents per day.

Comstock Resources reported 21 gross or 8.9 net Haynesville Shale wells waiting on completion as of 9/30/2011.

In 2012, the company plans to reduce the company’s operated rig count in the Haynesville Shale to one rig from the current level of three.  The company will spend $169 million of a total $396 million budget as follows:

$104 million – To drill 37 gross or 12.6 net wells.

$65 million – To complete 17 gross or 14.7 net wells drilled in 2011.