Is the bloom coming off the Haynesville Shale rose because of its drier-gas nature, with a few producers announcing recently they will be refocusing exploration and production (E&P) efforts into “oilier” plays such as Eagle Ford in South Texas (see Shale Daily, Nov. 5; Nov. 4; Oct. 7)?

No, Haynesville production will remain fairly high because it still has overall strong output in comparison to conventional gas fields, says analyst Teri Viswanath of Credit Suisse. She acknowledged that Louisiana drilling rig activity had dropped to 154 as of Nov. 1 after being as high as 272 early this year, but the Haynesville E&P activity was still high.

Actually, only 20% of total U.S. gas production is shale-based currently, Viswanath said, adding rhetorically “are we entering shale fatigue?”

The Barnett Shale in North Texas may be getting close to peaking in production because it was one of the first shale plays to attract E&P interest, Viswanath said, but she thinks Haynesville activity will keep rising because of rising takeaway capacity.

Energy Transfer Partners’ ETC Tiger Pipeline serving Haynesville producers is scheduled to begin operations Dec.1, as will the Fayetteville Express Pipeline serving the Fayetteville Shale in Arkansas (see Daily GPI, Nov. 9).