Haynesville Shale

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) and a bevy of independent analysts have predicted domestic natural gas production will climb rapidly over the long-term because of booming unconventional gas growth. However, the University of Texas at Austin (UT) is predicting production from the biggest shale gas plays — Marcellus, Barnett, Fayetteville and Haynesville — will peak by 2020 and decline thereafter.

U.S. natural gas proved reserves increased nearly 10% and reached a record 354 Tcf in 2013, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Meanwhile, North Dakota’s crude oil and lease condensate proved reserves surpassed those of the federal Gulf of Mexico (GOM), ranking it second only to Texas among U.S. states.

A subsidiary of J-W Energy Co., a privately-held exploration and production (E&P) company based in Dallas, said it has acquired oil and natural gas properties in northern Louisiana from Australia’s BHP Billiton Ltd., a move that will increase its production totals and proven reserves.

Texas crude oil and natural gas production statistics continue to reflect producers’ preference for oil over less-lucrative natural gas.

Production from the seven most prolific U.S. shale and tight oil regions in November is expected to reach 43.28 Bcf/d of natural gas (up 1.4% from October ) and 5.14 million b/d of crude oil (up 2.4% from this month), according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

A unit of Patterson-UTI Energy Inc. is growing its Gulf Coast region operations by acquiring pressure pumping assets that will support activities in the Eagle Ford and Haynesville shales.

The Denver-Julesburg (DJ) and Permian basins, and the Utica Shale, should lead all onshore plays for horizontal fracturing (fracking) this year as drilling and completion (D&C) activity continues to escalate, according to PacWest Consulting Partners LLC.

The use of natural gas for power generation in the Lower 48 is expected to increase to 1.6 billion megawatt hours (MWh) by 2040, a 1.3% average annual increase, in part due to development of several shale plays, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Royal Dutch Shell plc on Thursday announced two more agreements in a bid to restructure its North American portfolio and realign its shale operations with the divestiture of 126,000 net acres in North Louisiana’s Haynesville Shale and the Pinedale Anticline of Wyoming.