[copious.abundance]

Here's a good website showing what these gas wells look like through their various development stages:
http://www.powernaturally.org/programs/ ... opment.asp

Here's what it looks like when it's done. When they're drilling it, it's a mess. But afterwards it's not bad at all.



Judging from that web page it looks like NY state requires site remediation afterwards. From the bing.com bird's-eye photos I linked above it looks like Texas is more lax in that regard.

[copious.abundance]

Here's some completed Haynesville shale wells:
http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v ... &encType=1
http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v ... &encType=1

East of Shreveport there is a large collection of gas wells. Not sure these are Haynesville wells (I suspect they're a conventional gas field based on the spacing), but it gives an idea of how "bad" a completed gas well is. Click on the link and start scrolling through the neighboring photos:
http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v ... &encType=1

As in Texas, some landscaping requirements would be nice, but nonetheless I can think of a lot worse things to do to this land than develop it into a gas field.

[copious.abundance]

So here ya go pstarr - he with the solar panels on his roof. Which is more environmentally friendly?

A natural gas field?


Or a solar farm?


The choice is yours.

[copious.abundance]

LINK
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'J')UNE 17, 2009, 5:20 P.M. ET
U.S. Has Almost 100 Year Supply of Natural Gas
By BEN CASSELMAN

The amount of natural gas available for production in the United States has soared 58% in the past four years, driven by a drilling boom and the discovery of huge new gas fields in Texas, Louisiana and Pennsylvania, a new study says.

The report, due to be released Thursday by the nonprofit Potential Gas Committee, concludes the U.S. has more than 2,000 trillion cubic feet of natural gas still in the ground, or nearly a century's worth of production at current rates. That's a 35.4% jump over the committee's last estimate, in 2007, of 1,532 trillion cubic feet, the biggest increase in the committee's 44-year history.

The report comes as rising oil prices have again made energy a hot topic in Washington. On Wednesday, a Senate panel voted 15-8 in favor of an energy bill that would, among other things, open up new areas to offshore drilling. The House of Representatives may vote as early as next week on a new climate-change bill that would cap emissions of the gasses that contribute to climate change. The Senate must also approve the measure.

The natural-gas industry has promoted gas as a more environmentally friendly, domestically produced alternative to coal and oil. Industry supporters said the new report could bolster their case by showing that the U.S. can rely more heavily on gas without running out.

[...]

[AirlinePilot]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('OilFinder2', ':')shock:

LINK
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he report, due to be released Thursday by the nonprofit Potential Gas Committee, concludes the U.S. has more than 2,000 trillion cubic feet of natural gas still in the ground, or nearly a century's worth of production at current rates.

[...]

[copious.abundance]

You're right AP - maybe our NG consumption will double overnight and therefore these reserves are only good for 50 years.

[TheDude]

So what is the implication of this - from last October, at that:

As the Barnett Shale's Production Peaks, Economic Factors Weigh Heavily on Its Future-- Page:2

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')For those that drill in urban areas or where the shale is thin, sustained prices below $6 or $7 per million British thermal units might trigger a halt.

In the core area of the play, where the shale is thick and rich with gas, a producer might not worry until prices hit $5 per million Btu.

"Most of the people talking about the Barnett Shale rolling over in the next while, I think that might reflect their own assets, their own acreage positions," said John Richels, president of Devon Energy Corp., the largest and one of the earliest producers of the Barnett Shale.

As an early pioneer, Devon leased land in the sweet spot of the play, in rural areas in Denton, Parker, Johnson, Tarrant and Wise counties.

Devon paid less for its leases than other companies and hasn't faced as much drilling protest as those companies working in urban areas.

Mr. Richels expects Devon to double its production in the next few years. He's more optimistic than some of his peers.

But even Mr. Richels agrees that lower natural gas prices will constrict drilling budgets in the industry.

'One more year'

"Our view is that the Barnett Shale, as an aggregate, probably has one more year of decent growth, and that's 2009," said Mark Papa, chief executive of EOG Resources, a Barnett Shale production company.

"By year-end 2009, we believe Johnson County is going to be pretty well drilled up by all operators," Mr. Papa told analysts in July.

"That's going to remove a lot of the thrust."

Other production company brass put the peak a year or two later, but most agree that the natural gas field may have only a few more years of growth.

Already data from the Railroad Commission show production has been declining nearly every month this year.

[copious.abundance]

A major reason why the Barnett shale is close to being maxed out is because everyone is moving their rigs to the Haynesville shale. In fact, your article noted precisely that:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')lready, Chesapeake has said it will move 10 of its 43 Barnett Shale rigs to the Haynesville Shale, a budding natural gas field in northern Louisiana.

[copious.abundance]

Ah, here it was, on page 8 of this thread. It was the Delaware basin, not the Permian basin. Whatever.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ROCKMAN', 'O')F2,

Speaking of Barnett Shale potential out side the FW Basin I thought you might find this intersting...especially XTO's involvement

Summary: "Hydrocarbon Potential of the Barnett Shale (Mississippian), Delaware Basin, West Texas and Southeastern New Mexico" -- You may know it well in the Fort Worth Basin. Come learn about the potential of the Barnett Shale in the Delaware Basin from XTO Energy.

ABSTRACT
The Barnett Shale (Mississippian) in the Delaware Basin has the potential to be a prolific gas producer. The shale is organic rich and thermally mature over large parts of the basin. Depths to the Barnett range from 7000 ft (2133 m) along the western edge of the basin to more than 18,000 ft (5486 m) along the basin axis. The Barnett Shale began generating petroleum about 250 Ma and reached its maximum temperature about 260 Ma. Present-day thermal maturity is indicative of maximum burial and temperature. Wells in northern Reeves County are in the gas window based on measured vitrinite reflectance values and kerogen transformation ratios. The shale can be divided into an upper clastic unit and a lower limy unit by changes in resistivity. The lower unit can be subdivided into five subunits by distinctive well-log markers. Preliminary analyses suggest that intervals in the lower Barnett marked by high resistivity and high neutron porosity readings on well logs have high gas contents. Areas in which to focus the future exploration in the lower Barnett can be delineated by mapping a net resistivity greater than 50 ohm m. The Barnett Shale contains significant gas resources in the Delaware Basin. Realizing the potential of these resources depends on the current efforts to optimize drilling and completion techniques for this shale-gas play.

[shortonsense]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TheDude', ' ') And this resource is supposed to last us for centuries?

[copious.abundance]

Here's someone else's take on how long drilling in the Barnett will last:
http://www.expertsreviewof.com/
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]How Long Will Drilling In The Barnett Shale Last?

In an interview with the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Larry Brogdon, exploration manager for Four Sevens Oil Company, had this to say; "We will all be dead and folks will still be drilling Barnett wells," he said. "There are literally thousands of infill wells to be drilled in the core areas and operators will continue to push its limits."

[TheDude]

That's great, but most of the intervening space isn't part of the BS. Was going to show the same map you did.

Also the formation thins out as you head west:



Production has only been ramped up in the last decade:



Johnson Co. has only really been worked over for half of that:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')n 2005–2007 horizontal drilling in the Barnett Shale extended south into Johnson, Hill, and Bosque counties, with a 100 percent success rate on completed wells. An experimental vertical well is being drilled in McLennan County (near Waco) to assess the potential for development along the Ouachita Fold, a geological barrier which defines the southern limit of the Barnett Shale.

[copious.abundance]

Here, I've highlighted the approximate size and extent of Johnson County in the map I showed above. Let me know when they run out of real estate for them to drill on.



While we're at it, let me know when they run out of spots to drill in the Marcellus shale. Even if only 1/4 of this is "really good, thick shale with high organic content," it will take them forever to drill this thing.

Now if that weren't enough, here's another one. I started a thread on this not long ago but I'll post it here.

A guy (who posted here briefly a while ago) has a blog in which, among other things, he discussed energy issues (he works in the oil/gas biz). Not long ago he did a blog post on the Eagleford shale:
http://openchoke.blogs.com/open_choke/2 ... relim.html
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'O')K, so I am learning about the Eagle Ford. It is pretty dang interesting. I found a bunch of old production data from the 1940's on Drilling Info in some interesting areas that I am evaluating. I have heard about lithologic limits... plastic versus brittle frac'ing and such, but the play produces widely and doesn't seem to have a problem producing liquids... a nice thing in this era of gatherers and gas plant folks unzipping on us producers with impunity. Here is a starting point. A map showing the outcrop, where existing production is, and an inferred zone that is depth correlative to the interesting wells in LaSalle thus far.

[copious.abundance]

The Barnett shale is dead.

Not.

>>> LINK <<<
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'P')osted on Fri, Jun. 19, 2009
Barnett Shale is top U.S. natural gas producer, Chesapeake CEO says
By JACK Z. SMITH

Chesapeake Energy Chairman and CEO Aubrey McClendon said Friday that the Barnett Shale has surpassed the venerable San Juan Basin as the biggest natural gas producer in the United States.

He also said the Barnett, which has speckled North Texas with roughly 10,000 natural gas wells, "will be producing at least 50 years" and "probably" for a century.

McClendon made the comments in a speech to the Rotary Club of Fort Worth and in a brief telephone interview with the Star-Telegram.

He said Chesapeake officials estimate Barnett production at 5.5 billion cubic feet a day but acknowledged that no one knows precisely. The San Juan is in the Four Corners region of the Southwest, with production concentrated in northwestern New Mexico and Colorado.

Gene Powell, publisher of the Barnett Shale Newsletter, has estimated Barnett production at 4.9 billion cubic feet per day, but that was as of Jan. 1. Barnett drilling activity has been centered most heavily in Tarrant and Johnson counties but also extends into Hood, Palo Pinto, Parker, Somervell, Denton, Jack, Montague and Wise counties.

[...]

[copious.abundance]

Robin: Holy billowing founts of methane gases Batman, the best thing since sliced bread could get even better!!

Batman: What's that Robin?

Robin: A company examined some old well logs and discovered that the Haynesville Shale goes all the way over to Mississippi!

Batman: Excellent find, Robin.

Robin: But there's more, Batman. Those well logs indicated the Haynesville is at least 2500 feet thick over there!

Batman: Great work. We need to keep an eye on this one. I have a hunch this thing will someday turn out to be even better than sliced bread.

>>> Rigzone <<<

It's time to say

to doom!

[AirlinePilot]

Could be Huge!

Yup it could be. And it might not be either.

Why dont you put up a post documenting the first commercial flow rates when they come on line?

Maybe I'll pay attention then, until I see that this is just more Corny BS.

[copious.abundance]

AP, see article on previous page entitled, "Haynesville Shale producing extraordinary numbers."

^
Oops, I see the link from my earlier posting has expired. Here's another copy.

>>> Haynesville Shale producing extraordinary numbers <<<
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')...]

According to the latest data from the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, the top producing well for the month of December belongs to Petrohawk. The well, in Red River Parish, produced about 713.4 million cubic feet of natural gas that month. That translates to about 23 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.

It's not the only well producing extraordinary numbers.

There are 266 wells permitted to drill in the Haynesville Shale. Forty-four of them are active and producing, according to data from Natural Resources.

Of those 44, eight produced from 100 million to more than 700 million cubic feet of natural gas in December.

Ray Lasseigne, president of TMR Exploration in Bossier City, said these are phenomenal numbers, especially compared to conventional, vertical wells drilled in other natural gas formations, like the Elm Grove and Caspiana fields.

A good well in those fields could produce 2 million to 3 million cubic feet of natural gas a day, Lasseigne said.

"Obviously, the shale wells are up to 10 times better than the typical wells drilled over the last five or six years," he said. "These are phenomenal wells. Even the major players are pleasantly surprised by the quality of these wells."

[...]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('OilFinder2', 'I') don't think they can control themselves.