THE Haynesville Shale just can’t get any respect. Sitting atop a swath of Louisiana and Texas, it is easily North America’s largest unconventional play, but also one of its most economically challenging in the face of depressed natural gas prices.
Haynesville is one of the big six shale plays that have accounted for more than half of the US’ new gas production since 2006. Oklahoma-based Chesapeake Energy made the initial Haynesville discovery in spring 2008 – and, since then, it has gone on to become a pillar of US gas supply.
In February, the Haynesville eclipsed the Barnett Shale as the top US unconventional gasfield, pumping 5 billion cubic feet a day (cf/d) – more than exporter Australia’s total output in 2010. Now it’s even bigger, with year-end production approaching 8 billion cf/d, despite a 40%% drop in drilling. It took 10 years and 10,000 wells to achieve those...