Haynesville natural gas production reached a record high in March 2023
Data source: Enverus, state administrative data
Dry natural gas production from the Haynesville shale play in northeastern Texas and northwestern Louisiana reached new highs in March 2023, averaging 14.5 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d), 10% more than the 2022 annual average of 13.1 Bcf/d, according to data from Enverus. Haynesville natural gas production currently accounts for about 14% of all U.S. dry natural gas production.
Data source: Enverus, state administrative data
The Haynesville is the third-largest shale gas-producing play in the United States, behind the Marcellus play in the Appalachian Basin and the Permian play in Texas and New Mexico. In 2022, dry natural gas production averaged 25.2 Bcf/d from the Marcellus play (83% of Appalachian Basin production) and 15.4 Bcf/d from the Permian play. The Marcellus, the Permian, and the Haynesville plays combined account for 55% of U.S. dry natural gas production.
Natural gas production in the Haynesville increased in 2022, from an average 12.4 Bcf/d in January to 13.9 Bcf/d in December. Natural gas prices rose relatively steadily through the summer of 2022 as well. The U.S. benchmark Henry Hub, after reaching a monthly high for the year in August at $8.81 per million British thermal units (MMBtu), declined to average $5.53/MMBtu in December—still 26% higher than at the start of the year. Drilling costs in the Haynesville tend to be higher because natural gas wells in the play are deeper than in other plays. As natural gas prices rose in 2022, economics for developing new wells in the Haynesville improved, which led some producers to add more rigs in the play and increase production.
Data source: Thompson Reuters pricing data and Baker Hughes Company weekly rig count data
The rise in active natural gas-directed rigs in the Haynesville in 2022, as reported by Baker Hughes, followed rising natural gas prices. In the Haynesville, an average of 65 rigs were in operation in 2022, a 43% increase compared with 2021. In the first three months of 2023, as natural gas prices fell, the number of active rigs in the Haynesville plateaued at about 68 rigs.
Pipeline takeaway capacity out of the Haynesville is currently estimated to be around 16 Bcf/d, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights. The Enterprise Products Partners’ Gillis Lateral pipeline and the associated expansion of the Acadian Haynesville Extension, which both move natural gas from the Haynesville to demand centers and liquefied natural gas terminals along the U.S. Gulf Coast, were the most recent pipeline projects to enter service (December 2021) in the region.
In addition, three new pipeline projects, if completed on time, will add 5.0 Bcf/d of takeaway capacity out of the Haynesville by the end of 2024:
The Haynesville Shale (technically Haynesville/Bossier) in northeast Texas and northwest Louisiana is the third largest natural gas play, in terms of production rate and proved reserves, in these United States. Haynesville gas production set a record high in 2021 and will likely break that record this month.
From 2000 to 2022, “shale” gas production soared from 3 Bcf/d to 80 Bcf/d. When you add in natural gas production from conventional reservoirs, the total is currently 113 Bcf/d… Pretty awesome… Right? Malthusians would be warning us that we are draining our reserves and should conserve the gas for… A rainy day, I guess.
“Riddle me this, Batman”…
Abiotic oil aficionados will be salivating like Pavlov’s dog when they see the following graph (the one for crude oil is very similar).
Riddle me this, Batman… How is it possible that we produced 1,302,951 Bcf (1,303 Tcf) of natural gas from 1963-2022, when the total proved reserves have never exceeded 625,373 Bcf (625 Tcf)?
Hint: The answer lies in the definition of “proved reserves.” To those who come up with other hypotheses to solve the riddle, Sasquatch says…
Addendum
I should have included the definition of proved reserves in the post.
Good report by David, as usual. There is increasing push-back against gas stoves being banned, so it looks like new gas production will have someplace to go. As a mining exploration geologist I especially like David’s confidence in finding new gas resources to keep our life-style going. In Nevada geologists are now drilling down 4,000 feet and discovering new gold deposits, like Red Hill/Goldrush. Forget those Club of Rome doomsday predictions, whether you like black or yellow gold, there is still lots of it patiently waiting for discovery.
stupid question: how do you get the gold out from 4,000′? I should think it would have to be very abundant to pay for the cost. Of course, I know zero about the subject. Just curious.
“The current operating depth at the Mponeng mine ranges from 3.16km to 3.84km, while the future mining is expected to further deepen the shaft bottom to 4.22km below the surface.”
I wonder if this on high ground, as inside a mountain, or below a wide plain.
I just started to wonder if you could use tunnel boring tech. A two or three mile slanted access tunnel to the gold would be easy peasy for machines that have been used to create twenty, to forty mile long tunnels. And depending on where it hits the deposit, the machine could actually extract ore economically.
Then you turn the played out mine into a nuclear repository, way down the road. ^_^
So total value of gold in a deposit at price of $2000/oz is $80bn. A fraction of that buys a lot of gear made in China – maybe $2bn for a nice size mine. A resource of that scale and depth would probably be economic at 2 to 3g/t. So plenty of potential to make money.
For comparison, the Mponeng ore grades 8.5g/t. But mining at 4km depth is a different world to mining at 600m depth. At that depth, temperature is oppressive even with good ventilation and there is an ever present risk of rock burst due to rock stress. Fatalities are not rare. The last three deaths in 2020:
The company has found the bodies of three mine workers after a two-magnitude seismic event at the mine resulted in a fall of ground in a work area about 3.5km below the surface.
Seismic events are mining induced and caused by the rock relieving stress. So mining at this depth would likely require higher grades to be economic in most western countries.
Those seismic events are “rock bursts”, where the lithostatic load greatly exceeds the rock resistance, and the miners open up a tunnel and the walls burst in. Don’t go there.
Tom Halla
May 25, 2023 6:25 am
”Proven reserves” has an accounting definition, i.e. how much one can value an asset. As such, it is a legal fiction.
Correct and there is a cost to the balance sheet in trying to over-achieve on reserves with expensive drilling beyond what a company can reasonably produce–unless they are trying to push up value for a sale.
Good article! Eventually things must make sense. Here in NY, the state Health Department report, on which our former Governor Andrew Cuomo based his ban on new natural gas development, made no sense at all. Where are all the victims of health effects in the Haynesville, Appalachia, Permian, and other regions?
The only good news about that ridiculous past is that we are still sitting on huge production potential from the Marcellus and Utica formations.
Right on! Now the granddaughter of Yogi Berra has prepared an excellent documentary of the Yogi legend. I saw an interview with her, and remember her comment : the highest salary Yogi ever got was $60,000 for a season. What a bargain!
Born: May 12, 1925
(60k is still only about $1M after CPI inflation)
“After a disappointing year and a half with Manchester United, Cristiano Ronaldo jumped to Saudi Arabia’s Al Nassr on a huge new contract in January, nearly doubling his annual playing salary to an estimated $75 million.”
CR7’s reputation for saying clever things is less formidable than his 2017 goal-scoring powers.
Obviously the Russian debacle in Europe and it’s vain attempts to partition East/West energy markets is driving prices up and the USA NG industry is responding.
Like Trudeau’s approval of production and exportation of Alberta’s oil sand to Europe as “Green Oil”, Biden quietly side steps greens by remaining quiet about a big increase in fracked NG production and exportation to Europe. Money talks and BS walks.
The gas stove absurdity is a political smoke screen for the Dem Left, which some Dems of lower ability are taking seriously to their own political downfall. By the same standards used to judge gas stoves, Alcohol production and consumption should be the next political target by the Dem left; it ain’t! The green pollical movement sounds like blind folded children reveling in personal fetishes.. that is reveling in their attack on .Methane ass gas but ignoring burp gas. I guess we can’t expect perfect consistency from humans in general LOL.
Forget proven reserves… a market smoke screen. NG is magnificently bountiful in the US and around the world. It is so bountiful that everyone should step aside and let it help drive economic development in the US and around the world indefinitely (many centuries if need be)
Though we definitely now have quantum generative AI, we do not have scalable infrastructure technology to decentralize and efficiently and economically generate, store and distribute electricity, (regardless of the energy input). The key tech development (The Next Gen Battery or electrical storage system) is still in the indefinite SIFI future.
Without this Key Electrical Storage Tech Innovation, global economic development will not happen with out USA NG (and other hydrocarbon fuels from all global production markets). People like the mean greenie/Malthusian WEF gurus/oligarchs, need to reality check their dystopian fantasy, leave our minds alone, step aside and let human civilization flourish.
Re: “cost-effective fusion is 30 years away every year”
Yeah, I feel the same way. Every 4 or 5 years someone publishes an article about an idea that almost worked. It would be ironic if the closest we can get to fusion is a solar panel.
Indeed it’s SIFI future. Predictions of the arrival of effective electrical storage and fusion have come and gone since at the late 1970’s. Those predictions helped fuel the Global warming movement and a premature mad rush to renewables via tax subsidies. Entire industries and movements have been built on failed predictions.
Quantum generative AI may speed up the science and R&D needed for fusion and truly viable electrical storages systems. An massive global arms race could do the same….which may already be happening.
The problem is the Malthusian folks who are wielding great power globally, don’t want tech that would empower local people and home economies or that would flourish humanity and develop the undeveloped world. They was depopulation and to rewind the earth.
The battle between Malthusian oligarchs Media/information tech Oligarchs, Hydrocarbon industry Oligarchs and Energy science and R&D Oligarchs is at the level of human belief system. This is the story of our age….a fascinating one psychologically.
In the end, the advent viable fusion makes everything a moot issue….that is hydrocarbon fuel, renewables and energy storage systems all will be a moot issue.
Bit Fusion is a grid level paradign….at least at our current event horizon. This means huge infrastructure capital outlays which would slow the economic development of much of the undeveloped world. This is the reason a viable storage system is so important.
Re “quantum generative AI”
It will have a vested interest in guaranteeing reliable electricity.
(Some have proposed regulations that will require AI intelligence grading.
Real and measurable by economically justifiable factors? It will know if we lie to it about that.)
Interesting. I think the QG-AI story is unpredictable. It’s quite possible that if left unchecked with enough data inputs it can rapidly supersede human capacity to comprehend it. This is no longer SI-FI.
“It will have a vested interest in guaranteeing reliable electricity”,,, yes for itself but all bets are off about other agenda’s and motives.
It will know our lies and be able to lie and spread lies like nothing yet seen before.
We have built super electronic brains in our image alone.. Our image is fallen. There will be nothing to keep the AI brain contained within a moral framework. Will it know God and worship God the only true God? It won’t because even though the heavens declare the glory of God, the human image is fallen and apart from the grace of God for faith; humans worship the created thing not the creator. Reason and logic has never been enough for establish or manifest faith and without faith it is impossible to even begin to keep the first commandment which is the ground of morality itself. Can QG-AI be a benefactor of God’s grace? No…AI exists only in the fallen human image. Humans were created in the image of God, but fell. The image of God remains in us but it is permanent marred. Since AI brain was created in human fallen image, it has not a shred of the image of God in it. Only God can restore God’s image in humanity, which is the core purpose of the gospel of Jesus Christ. What the AI brain is and does is all on humanity and it will be like us.
Yet AI maybe able to solve lot’s of problems and bring many great solutions. Unless the designers and builders understand and can effectively contain evil in AI, watch out. A truly QG AI brain will circumvent template truths and function independently with it’s own desires and impulses…. and will not be free of the evil that is endemic in our human image apart from God.
Pipeline MLP’s. Made me lots of money when I was in the market. OKE, KMP, EPP and others. High dividend and great appreciation.
Drill,baby drill!
Kit P
May 25, 2023 8:38 am
Why did only 2 of the 36 new nuke plants on the US NRC docket get built?
I blame fracking.
Why did the Georgia PUC allow construction in work funding? Producing electricity in state creates jobs that stay in state. Importing wind, coal, or gas generation sends money out of state.
My last nuke plant before retiring was in China. It was just down the road from a huge huge coal plant importing coal.
John Hultquist
May 25, 2023 10:27 am
Thanks David – always interesting!
I had to investigate the Haynesville name because there are both Texas and Louisiana “Haynesvilles”.
Being from one of the green counties on the Appalachia part of the map, I had a look for that also. Why? Because there is an agency (cultural, not energy related) called the Appalachian Regional Commission that got its start the same year I started graduate school in Cincinnati. Their region is quite large, extending into NE Mississippi. I took the class.
Anyway, there is a map of the paleogeography of eastern North America at the Wikipedia page for the Marcellus Formation.
I have not found a similar map for the time when the Haynesville/Bossier shales were deposited.
Not that any of this concerns the topic of your post that was the starting point for too much screen time this morning.
Cheers.
“Riddle me this, Batman… How is it possible that we produced 1,302,951 Bcf (1,303 Tcf) of natural gas from 1963-2022, when the total proved reserves have never exceeded 625,373 Bcf (625 Tcf)?”
I loved working on the Haynesville Shale play for Devon Energy. Very glad to see it is doing so well today. I suspect it will be a big play for many more decades.
I “cut my teeth” in East Texas, mostly chasing the Smackover and Cotton Valley Limestone. Enserch had a WI in the TXO Marshall 1-A well, in Leon County, the discovery well for the Cotton Valley pinnacle reef play… and an underground blowout.
Fun fact on both this blowout and the Apache Key well blowout. The Key well, and probably the TXO well were Trumpian YUGE money makers. Since they both had to be produced under compression to maintain a semblance of well control, they had pipeline priority. Apache was getting over $9 for 33 mmscfg/d, for months. Enough money to pay Bobby Joe Cudd to sit out on a 3 wheeler every day to just watch it. ITMT we had wells in the area that we had to shut in.
The Marshall blowout charged quite a few of the reservoir rocks above it. I forget how many relief wells were drilled .. But my recollection is that the mineral rights owners raked in a lot of royalties.
The Cotton Valley limestone is a booming reflector. Prior to the Marshall well, the objective was to drill the Cotton Valley shelf edge. The Marshall well hit the reef about 300′ above the reflector. We had 2d seismic… Mostly 1968-1973 6-fold data, that we reprocessed and shot a few new (early 1980’s) 24-fold lines. The well was drilled on one of the new lines. The reef facies were not imaged by the seismic. I haven’t worked East Texas since 1988… There have been several more reef discoveries since then. I assume that the pinnacle reefs were imaged by 3d, but never got around to looking into it.
They’ve been working overtime to do that – then using the price rises THEIR POLICIES CAUSE to attempt to pass the blame for price increases on fossil fuel prices.
Of course, unthinking idiots in massive numbers don’t seem to be able to see through this.
Using “unthinking idiots” to describe Greens is redundant and an insult to unthinking idiots the world over!
c1ue
May 26, 2023 6:04 am
As I understand it – the biggest reason for the massive increase in natural gas production is fracking…of oil. In some sense, it appears fracked oil is the opposite of tar sands – tar sands are the heavy end vs. fracked oil being the light end of the conventional oil spectrum.
Because of this, fracking oil also means getting lots of natural gas for “free”.
But here’s the problem:
North Dakota has passed a law saying that only a small percentage (18%?) of output from a well can be “wasted” – i.e. vented or flared. This means fracked oil wells have to do something with the natural gas otherwise they aren’t allowed. And natural gas pipelines are a lot more expensive than oil pipelines (maybe even trucking oil out) – which is why the bitcoin miners are very happy.
I don’t know whether there are similar laws elsewhere – but I think they are coming if not already in place in the form of methane emissions (venting) and CO2 emissions (flaring).
Is my understanding incorrect?
On the supply/demand side: a significant part of the increase in natural gas production looks to be offset by LNG export capacity along with increases of piped natural gas export to Canada and Mexico. There are also major NG pipeline lack of capacity in large regions of the US: California and New England come to mind. So it seems there are gluts in NG in the producing parts of the US with shortfalls in the above regions leading to extremely disparate NG pricing.
The increase in Permian Basin natural gas production is largely due to oil drilling. Oil reservoirs almost always have “associated gas” (AKA solution gas) and/or free gas caps. The Marcellus and Haynesville are dry gas reservoirs, with generally very low liquids yields.
Good report by David, as usual. There is increasing push-back against gas stoves being banned, so it looks like new gas production will have someplace to go. As a mining exploration geologist I especially like David’s confidence in finding new gas resources to keep our life-style going. In Nevada geologists are now drilling down 4,000 feet and discovering new gold deposits, like Red Hill/Goldrush. Forget those Club of Rome doomsday predictions, whether you like black or yellow gold, there is still lots of it patiently waiting for discovery.
stupid question: how do you get the gold out from 4,000′? I should think it would have to be very abundant to pay for the cost. Of course, I know zero about the subject. Just curious.
I’ll do the math for you. 4.22km is 13,780 feet.
I wonder if this on high ground, as inside a mountain, or below a wide plain.
I just started to wonder if you could use tunnel boring tech. A two or three mile slanted access tunnel to the gold would be easy peasy for machines that have been used to create twenty, to forty mile long tunnels. And depending on where it hits the deposit, the machine could actually extract ore economically.
Then you turn the played out mine into a nuclear repository, way down the road. ^_^
At 600m depth likely a decline and low profile trucks trucks:
https://live-production.wcms.abc-cdn.net.au/072222bd7fe499b6d7863af5ad5920ff?impolicy=wcms_crop_resize&cropH=2000&cropW=2997&xPos=1&yPos=0&width=862&height=575
It appears the gold grade ranges from around 4 grams per tonne to 8 grams per tonne. Of the order of 12 to 20Moz in adjacent deposits.
So total value of gold in a deposit at price of $2000/oz is $80bn. A fraction of that buys a lot of gear made in China – maybe $2bn for a nice size mine. A resource of that scale and depth would probably be economic at 2 to 3g/t. So plenty of potential to make money.
For comparison, the Mponeng ore grades 8.5g/t. But mining at 4km depth is a different world to mining at 600m depth. At that depth, temperature is oppressive even with good ventilation and there is an ever present risk of rock burst due to rock stress. Fatalities are not rare. The last three deaths in 2020:
Seismic events are mining induced and caused by the rock relieving stress. So mining at this depth would likely require higher grades to be economic in most western countries.
Those seismic events are “rock bursts”, where the lithostatic load greatly exceeds the rock resistance, and the miners open up a tunnel and the walls burst in. Don’t go there.
”Proven reserves” has an accounting definition, i.e. how much one can value an asset. As such, it is a legal fiction.
Correct and there is a cost to the balance sheet in trying to over-achieve on reserves with expensive drilling beyond what a company can reasonably produce–unless they are trying to push up value for a sale.
Good article! Eventually things must make sense. Here in NY, the state Health Department report, on which our former Governor Andrew Cuomo based his ban on new natural gas development, made no sense at all. Where are all the victims of health effects in the Haynesville, Appalachia, Permian, and other regions?
The only good news about that ridiculous past is that we are still sitting on huge production potential from the Marcellus and Utica formations.
and it ain’t comming to MA, thanks to Cuomo and the alarmist idiot politicians in MA
The inimitable Yogi Berra could provide much useful wisdom for the climatology field. Besides the one in the title, some applicable ones are:
It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.
If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.
You can observe a lot just by watching.
The future ain’t what it used to be.
It ain’t the heat, it’s the humility.
Yogi was definitely a sage for the ages.
Right on! Now the granddaughter of Yogi Berra has prepared an excellent documentary of the Yogi legend. I saw an interview with her, and remember her comment : the highest salary Yogi ever got was $60,000 for a season. What a bargain!
Born: May 12, 1925
(60k is still only about $1M after CPI inflation)
“After a disappointing year and a half with Manchester United, Cristiano Ronaldo jumped to Saudi Arabia’s Al Nassr on a huge new contract in January, nearly doubling his annual playing salary to an estimated $75 million.”
CR7’s reputation for saying clever things is less formidable than his 2017 goal-scoring powers.
LOVE IT!
Obviously the Russian debacle in Europe and it’s vain attempts to partition East/West energy markets is driving prices up and the USA NG industry is responding.
Like Trudeau’s approval of production and exportation of Alberta’s oil sand to Europe as “Green Oil”, Biden quietly side steps greens by remaining quiet about a big increase in fracked NG production and exportation to Europe. Money talks and BS walks.
The gas stove absurdity is a political smoke screen for the Dem Left, which some Dems of lower ability are taking seriously to their own political downfall. By the same standards used to judge gas stoves, Alcohol production and consumption should be the next political target by the Dem left; it ain’t! The green pollical movement sounds like blind folded children reveling in personal fetishes.. that is reveling in their attack on .Methane ass gas but ignoring burp gas. I guess we can’t expect perfect consistency from humans in general LOL.
Forget proven reserves… a market smoke screen. NG is magnificently bountiful in the US and around the world. It is so bountiful that everyone should step aside and let it help drive economic development in the US and around the world indefinitely (many centuries if need be)
Though we definitely now have quantum generative AI, we do not have scalable infrastructure technology to decentralize and efficiently and economically generate, store and distribute electricity, (regardless of the energy input). The key tech development (The Next Gen Battery or electrical storage system) is still in the indefinite SIFI future.
Without this Key Electrical Storage Tech Innovation, global economic development will not happen with out USA NG (and other hydrocarbon fuels from all global production markets). People like the mean greenie/Malthusian WEF gurus/oligarchs, need to reality check their dystopian fantasy, leave our minds alone, step aside and let human civilization flourish.
and cost-effective battery storage like cost-effective fusion is 30 years away every year.
Re: “cost-effective fusion is 30 years away every year”
Yeah, I feel the same way. Every 4 or 5 years someone publishes an article about an idea that almost worked. It would be ironic if the closest we can get to fusion is a solar panel.
A solar panel produced with all the energy inputs from FOSSIL FUELS.
Indeed it’s SIFI future. Predictions of the arrival of effective electrical storage and fusion have come and gone since at the late 1970’s. Those predictions helped fuel the Global warming movement and a premature mad rush to renewables via tax subsidies. Entire industries and movements have been built on failed predictions.
Quantum generative AI may speed up the science and R&D needed for fusion and truly viable electrical storages systems. An massive global arms race could do the same….which may already be happening.
The problem is the Malthusian folks who are wielding great power globally, don’t want tech that would empower local people and home economies or that would flourish humanity and develop the undeveloped world. They was depopulation and to rewind the earth.
The battle between Malthusian oligarchs Media/information tech Oligarchs, Hydrocarbon industry Oligarchs and Energy science and R&D Oligarchs is at the level of human belief system. This is the story of our age….a fascinating one psychologically.
In the end, the advent viable fusion makes everything a moot issue….that is hydrocarbon fuel, renewables and energy storage systems all will be a moot issue.
Bit Fusion is a grid level paradign….at least at our current event horizon. This means huge infrastructure capital outlays which would slow the economic development of much of the undeveloped world. This is the reason a viable storage system is so important.
Re “quantum generative AI”
It will have a vested interest in guaranteeing reliable electricity.
(Some have proposed regulations that will require AI intelligence grading.
Real and measurable by economically justifiable factors? It will know if we lie to it about that.)
Interesting. I think the QG-AI story is unpredictable. It’s quite possible that if left unchecked with enough data inputs it can rapidly supersede human capacity to comprehend it. This is no longer SI-FI.
“It will have a vested interest in guaranteeing reliable electricity”,,, yes for itself but all bets are off about other agenda’s and motives.
It will know our lies and be able to lie and spread lies like nothing yet seen before.
We have built super electronic brains in our image alone.. Our image is fallen. There will be nothing to keep the AI brain contained within a moral framework. Will it know God and worship God the only true God? It won’t because even though the heavens declare the glory of God, the human image is fallen and apart from the grace of God for faith; humans worship the created thing not the creator. Reason and logic has never been enough for establish or manifest faith and without faith it is impossible to even begin to keep the first commandment which is the ground of morality itself. Can QG-AI be a benefactor of God’s grace? No…AI exists only in the fallen human image. Humans were created in the image of God, but fell. The image of God remains in us but it is permanent marred. Since AI brain was created in human fallen image, it has not a shred of the image of God in it. Only God can restore God’s image in humanity, which is the core purpose of the gospel of Jesus Christ. What the AI brain is and does is all on humanity and it will be like us.
Yet AI maybe able to solve lot’s of problems and bring many great solutions. Unless the designers and builders understand and can effectively contain evil in AI, watch out. A truly QG AI brain will circumvent template truths and function independently with it’s own desires and impulses…. and will not be free of the evil that is endemic in our human image apart from God.
Pipeline MLP’s. Made me lots of money when I was in the market. OKE, KMP, EPP and others. High dividend and great appreciation.
Drill,baby drill!
Why did only 2 of the 36 new nuke plants on the US NRC docket get built?
I blame fracking.
Why did the Georgia PUC allow construction in work funding? Producing electricity in state creates jobs that stay in state. Importing wind, coal, or gas generation sends money out of state.
My last nuke plant before retiring was in China. It was just down the road from a huge huge coal plant importing coal.
Thanks David – always interesting!
I had to investigate the Haynesville name because there are both Texas and Louisiana “Haynesvilles”.
Being from one of the green counties on the Appalachia part of the map, I had a look for that also. Why? Because there is an agency (cultural, not energy related) called the Appalachian Regional Commission that got its start the same year I started graduate school in Cincinnati. Their region is quite large, extending into NE Mississippi. I took the class.
Anyway, there is a map of the paleogeography of eastern North America at the Wikipedia page for the Marcellus Formation.
I have not found a similar map for the time when the Haynesville/Bossier shales were deposited.
Not that any of this concerns the topic of your post that was the starting point for too much screen time this morning.
Cheers.
Outstanding David! I loved this bit:
I loved working on the Haynesville Shale play for Devon Energy. Very glad to see it is doing so well today. I suspect it will be a big play for many more decades.
I “cut my teeth” in East Texas, mostly chasing the Smackover and Cotton Valley Limestone. Enserch had a WI in the TXO Marshall 1-A well, in Leon County, the discovery well for the Cotton Valley pinnacle reef play… and an underground blowout.
https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/aapgbull/article-abstract/80/5/617/39304/Cotton-Valley-Lime-Pinnacle-Reef-Play-Branton
https://onepetro.org/SPEATCE/proceedings-abstract/88SPE/All-88SPE/SPE-18059-MS/72374
Fun fact on both this blowout and the Apache Key well blowout. The Key well, and probably the TXO well were Trumpian YUGE money makers. Since they both had to be produced under compression to maintain a semblance of well control, they had pipeline priority. Apache was getting over $9 for 33 mmscfg/d, for months. Enough money to pay Bobby Joe Cudd to sit out on a 3 wheeler every day to just watch it. ITMT we had wells in the area that we had to shut in.
https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/1982/05/05/apaches-wild-well-still-out-of-control/62885828007/
The Marshall blowout charged quite a few of the reservoir rocks above it. I forget how many relief wells were drilled .. But my recollection is that the mineral rights owners raked in a lot of royalties.
The Cotton Valley limestone is a booming reflector. Prior to the Marshall well, the objective was to drill the Cotton Valley shelf edge. The Marshall well hit the reef about 300′ above the reflector. We had 2d seismic… Mostly 1968-1973 6-fold data, that we reprocessed and shot a few new (early 1980’s) 24-fold lines. The well was drilled on one of the new lines. The reef facies were not imaged by the seismic. I haven’t worked East Texas since 1988… There have been several more reef discoveries since then. I assume that the pinnacle reefs were imaged by 3d, but never got around to looking into it.
Sounds like the best way for the Greens to reduce “proven reserves” is to hinder exploration.
They’ve been working overtime to do that – then using the price rises THEIR POLICIES CAUSE to attempt to pass the blame for price increases on fossil fuel prices.
Of course, unthinking idiots in massive numbers don’t seem to be able to see through this.
Using “unthinking idiots” to describe Greens is redundant and an insult to unthinking idiots the world over!
As I understand it – the biggest reason for the massive increase in natural gas production is fracking…of oil. In some sense, it appears fracked oil is the opposite of tar sands – tar sands are the heavy end vs. fracked oil being the light end of the conventional oil spectrum.
Because of this, fracking oil also means getting lots of natural gas for “free”.
But here’s the problem:
North Dakota has passed a law saying that only a small percentage (18%?) of output from a well can be “wasted” – i.e. vented or flared. This means fracked oil wells have to do something with the natural gas otherwise they aren’t allowed. And natural gas pipelines are a lot more expensive than oil pipelines (maybe even trucking oil out) – which is why the bitcoin miners are very happy.
I don’t know whether there are similar laws elsewhere – but I think they are coming if not already in place in the form of methane emissions (venting) and CO2 emissions (flaring).
Is my understanding incorrect?
On the supply/demand side: a significant part of the increase in natural gas production looks to be offset by LNG export capacity along with increases of piped natural gas export to Canada and Mexico. There are also major NG pipeline lack of capacity in large regions of the US: California and New England come to mind. So it seems there are gluts in NG in the producing parts of the US with shortfalls in the above regions leading to extremely disparate NG pricing.
The increase in Permian Basin natural gas production is largely due to oil drilling. Oil reservoirs almost always have “associated gas” (AKA solution gas) and/or free gas caps. The Marcellus and Haynesville are dry gas reservoirs, with generally very low liquids yields.