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.

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.

An article on the Reuters website reports that Indigo Minerals, LLC is purchasing over 500 producing natural gas wells and undeveloped acreage in Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas from Chesapeake Energy Corporation for $218 million.

The United States Geological Survey reports that the U.S. Gulf of Mexico contains very thick and concentrated gas-hydrate-bearing reservoir rocks which have the potential to produce gas using current technology.

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.

According to the Shreveport Times, lawmakers in Louisiana are working to get a tax credit for vehicle owners who switch their fuel from gasoline to compressed natural gas.

About 200 people attended a workshop in Shreveport, Louisiana titled “The Compelling Case for NGV’s”. The goal was to introduce businesses and government agencies to the idea of converting their vehicle fleets to locally-produced natural gas. 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.

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.

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.

There are many challenges to face when trying to get natural gas out of the Haynesville Shale. This article includes comments about those challenges from Don Briggs, head of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association.

Ray Lasseigne, president of TMR Exploration and a chairman on the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association Board, made numerous interesting comments about companies, drilling activity, energy prices and natural gas property leases at a recent public meeting about the Haynesville Shale. You can read numerous quotes from his presentation in an article at NWLANews.com.

According to an article at TheAdvocate, the state of Louisiana will earn nearly $100 million from the Haynesville Shale this month. Next month will be another big one as 11,000 acres of state land go up for lease.

Getting natural gas out of the Haynesville Shale is no easy matter. It is over two miles down, tied up in tiny fractures and adsorbed onto mineral and organic particles in the tight pore spaces of a shale. Then there is the myriad of problems related to permitting, water supplies, gas line right-of-ways and more. An article in the ShreveportTimes explores these issues.