Meet a Rising Star: Haynesville Shale

Last March, Haynesville premiered at South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas. Director Gregory Kallenberg takes the viewer on a trip through Haynesville Shale by zooming in on three lives affected by the play. The film also looks at the future of energy and Haynesville's role in it.

Haynesville Overview

Haynesville lives in East Texas and Northwest Louisiana with a dash of Arkansas where it enjoys being one of the more successful natural gas shale plays. Also known as Shreveport Shale and Louisiana Shale, Haynesville has attracted large oil and gas companies like Exxon and Southwestern Energy.

Haynesville's ultra-low permeability rock formation consists of clay-sized particles from the Jurassic age dating 150 million years. Found beneath Cotton Valley and Elm Grove, the play's action takes place 10,000 to 13,000 feet underground. The bulk of the drilling occurs in Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, DeSoto, Red River and Webster parishes. Companies believe Haynesville will produce for the next 17 to 25 years and that it may hold roughly 250 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Last year, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal passed a tax credit to support efforts to convert more vehicles to use compressed natural gas (CNG). This year, two bills went through with Senator Nick Gautreaux authoring both. One bill is for the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Revolving Loan Fund Program that gives financial aid to local governments that convert vehicles to use alternative fuel. The second bill lets political subdivisions to buy or lease vehicles that use alternative fuel.

Haynesville Shale Play Oil and Gas Companies

Here are just some of the companies in Haynesville and the latest news. New Haynesville arrival Mainland Resources has a joint venture with Petrohawk Resources that made it possible for the company to start producing in early 2009 in DeSoto Parish. The company also says it's looking for expired leases to grow its Hayneville presence and plans to add more wells. Other companies have already bought most of the available land in Haynesville.

The bulk of Cubic Energy Inc.'s properties are in Northwest Louisiana in Bossier/Haynesville shale play and in Cotton Valley. The exploration and production company focuses on oil and gas assets in Louisiana and Texas.

Oil giant Exxon Mobil Corporation has an application in the works for approval to build three new drilling and production units for exploration and production in Converse Field in Sabine Parish. U.K.'s BG Group, in its joint venture with EXCO Resources, paid $355.8 million to Southwestern Energy Co. for acreage in Haynesville and Bossier shales.

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

All of this barely scratches the surface (or should we say underground?) of the companies with activities in Haynesville. It's clear Haynesville is a play to watch.