“Despite a sharp decline in Henry Hub spot prices from the levels reached in the summer of 2008, natural gas production in the Barnett shale in Texas continued to climb through the middle of 2009 and appears to have reached an undulating plateau since then. Production growth in the Barnett shale comes from several large natural gas producers who continued to maintain strong production even in an environment of relatively low natural gas prices.” Quoted from the Energy Information Administration’s Natural Gas Update.

Westmont Resources Inc. will acquire 92 wells in the Chattanooga Shale of Scott County and Morgan County, Tennessee that are presently owned by Domestic Energy Corp. This announcement reveals some information about the Chattanooga and the wells that have been drilled. More at the Oil and Gas Journal.

During 2009, the economic downturn cut the use of natural gas by commercial and industry customers while the amount of gas used for electricity generation increased. Production levels continued to increase even though prices remained weak. See the review at the Energy Information Administration website.

Devon Energy announced that one of their Haynesville Shale wells in East Texas had an initial flow of 31 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. This might be the highest initial flow from the Haynesville. Read more about the well at NASDAQ.com

“At the end of 2008, domestic natural gas proved reserves reached their highest level since the U.S. Energy Information Administration began reporting them in 1977. Total U.S. proved reserves of dry natural gas rose by 6.9 trillion cubic feet from 2007 to 2008.” Quoted from the Energy Information Administration report.

Pioneer Natural Resources reports that one of their wells in the Eagle Ford Shale of Texas has an initial flow of 11.3 million cubic feet of natural gas equivalent per day. More in a Reuters article.

The Alabama Geological Survey has a summary publication titled “An Overview of the Floyd Shale & Chattanooga Shale Gas Play in Alabama“. This is a technical report that summarizes the geology and drilling activity that has recently occurred in Alabama.

An article on the Oil and Gas Journal website reports on a company in New Brunswick, Canada that has used propane instead of water to fracture a subsurface natural gas reservoir.

Lots of people want more out of their low-yield wells! The University of Utah has partnered with a geothermal company to determine if the hydrofracing process will stimulate their low-yield wells in hot rock.

A Canadian Press article explains how horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have converted organic rich shales into viable natural gas plays.

Quoted from a Nexen press release: “Nexen continues to make significant progress on its substantial Horn River shale gas position in north-east British Columbia following the conclusion of a recent three-well drilling and completion program. With five shale gas wells now on-stream, we are producing between 15-20 mmcf/d with the majority of production coming from the three new wells. Substantial cost savings and productivity improvements were realized with this drilling and completion program. We took advantage of improved equipment utilization, drilled longer wells, initiated more fracs per well and maintained an industry-leading frac pace of 26 fracs in 15 days while achieving a 100% success rate on our frac program. Two of the wells were completed with eight fracs, while the third well was completed with ten fracs.”

Horizontal wells are causing some people to be concerned about losing the gas beneath their property to a well that is being drilled a mile or more away. An article at CNBC.com tells why some people in Oklahome are concerned.

An article in the online edition of Barrons discusses the current build up in natural gas production capacity and how it is putting downward pressures on natural gas prices. As production from shales increases there is less opportunity for hurricanes to influence natural gas prices.

A blog post on the Wall Street Journal website explains how an excess of production over current consumption might lead to the widespread shutting in of natural gas wells until the winter heating season begins.

In a news release, Chesapeake Energy reports that they are the second largest leaseholder in the Fayetteville Shale gas play with 440,000 net acres. They expect to produce about 300 mmcfe net per day by the end of 2009 operating 18 rigs. Their estimated average yield per well is 2.4 bcfe.