The Financial Times website has an article titled: Louisiana’s Shale Gas Bonanza. It describes how a gas shale rush, lease and royalty income, and other opportunities related to the development of the Haynesville Shale have changed some parts of rural Louisiana.

The Shale Gas Drilling & Completions 2010 conference will be held in Houston, Texas on May 26 through May 28, 2010. The conference will deliver “key insight into applying cutting-edge drilling and completions techniques used throughout diverse shale projects in the US & Canada. Leading shale producers will share real life examples of their drilling and completions success and challenges – including experience from the Barnett, Haynesville, Horn River, Marcellus, Woodford and Fayetteville shale plays.” Quoted from the conference website.

An article in the New York Times reports that members of the House Energy and Commerce panel will examine Exxon Mobil’s plans to acquire significant acreage in the Marcellus, Haynesville and Barnett gas shale plays as part of a deal with XTO Energy. Exxon is concerned about future regulations that will limit the use of hydraulic fracturing to develop these assets.

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

An article at Bnet.com reports that Chesapeake Energy has an aggressive budget for 2009/2010 for exploration and production.

In a news release, Chesapeake Energy reports that they hold over 510,000 net acres in the Haynesville Shale gas play and are the largest leaseholder. They are the most active driller in the play with 29 rigs and expect to be producing 275 mmcfe of natural gas per day net by the end of 2009. Their estimated average yield per well is 6.5 bcfe.

“The U.S. Department of Energy announces the release of Modern Shale Gas Development in the United States: A Primer. The Primer provides regulators, policy makers, and the public with an objective source of information on the technology advances and challenges that accompany deep shale gas development.” Quoted from fossil.energy.gov. Download the .pdf

Ziff Energy Group has a press release on their website predicting that unconventional gas plays now active across North America will account for 53% of the continent’s gas production by 2020.

The City of Shreveport, Louisiana plans to spend some of their stimulus money to purchase five new buses that will run on compressed natural gas from the Haynesville Shale. More in the Shreveport Times.

Petrohawk announced that they have three Haynesville Shale natural gas wells yielding at a combined rate of 73 Mmcfe/d and one of those wells is the highest in the company’s history at 28.2 Mmcfe/d on a 30/64″ choke with 7,100# flowing casing pressure.  The record well is located in the Red River Parish of Louisiana.  The other two are in the Bossier Parish.   See the Petrohawk news release for more information.

Low energy prices and lack of credit access are two key factors holding back development of the new natural gas plays such as the Marcellus Shale, Haynesville Shale, Fayetteville and others. More details at The Oil Drum.

American Right of Way Associates opened an office in Shreveport, Louisiana to provide title search and field work training for new right of way agents.  Thousands of miles of gathering system and transmission pipelines will be needed as the Haynesville Shale is developed.  More at PR.com.

The City of Shreveport leased 2600 acres of mineral rights in 2004 for just $1.00 per acre (yes, one dollar).  Now they have hired some New Orleans attorneys in an effort to wiggle out of the deal.  More at ShreveportTimes.com.

The economic slowdown and fallen natural gas prices may have been contributing factors to  Shreveport  and Bossier City getting no bids on thousands of acres of Haynesville Shale rights in a recent auction.  More at the KTBS website.

A Haynesville Shale EXPO will be held on November 21st at the Shreveport Convention Center. They will have lots of exhibitors and several educational presentations. Many of the events are free. More details at the Shreveport Times.