September 2008
Columns
What's new in exploration
The Haynesville Shale is the hottest play in North America, and Chesapeake Energy Corp. leads in leasing and drilling. Chesapeake believes there are 250 Tcfe of Estimated Ultimately Recoverable (EUR) resources in an area covering 3.5 million acres in northern Louisiana and East Texas. The company’s share may be as much as 44 Tcfe. CEO Aubrey McClendon said in July that the Haynesville play is likely to become the largest gas field in the US, and the fourth largest in the world.
I am skeptical about this resource prediction. It exceeds the proved gas reserves of the US (215 Tcfe) by 16%, and is nearly 10 times the size of the largest gas field in North America (Prudhoe Bay, 26 Tcfg). It is more than nine times the US Geological Survey’s estimate for undiscovered Barnett Shale reserves (26.2 Tcfe).
