The Haynesville Shale in northeastern Texas and Louisiana is producing 10.522 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas this month, and is expected to produce even more next month, beating the previous production record of 10.4 billion cu ft/day from back in 2011.
According to this month’s Drilling Productivity Report by the EIA, natural gas production from the Haynesville shale is expected to rise to 10.754 billion cu ft/day in May.
Among the key shale plays in the U.S., Haynesville currently ranks third in terms of natural gas production after the Appalachia basin with the Marcellus and Utica shale plays and the Permian region, where associated gas production has been surging alongside booming crude oil production over the past year.
Those three regions accounted for almost half of America’s natural gas production in the middle of last year, compared to less than 15 percent of total U.S. natural gas output in 2007, the EIA said in August 2018.
Production in the Haynesville region started to rebound in 2017, driven by improving initial production rates and increasing rig counts, the EIA said.
The main reason for the resurgence for the Haynesville Shale is its proximity to the U.S. Gulf Coast—home of a growing number of liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals. Another driver of Haynesville’s renaissance is the productivity gains achieved in the past decade, according to the EIA. Related: The Giant Floating LNG Project You’ve Never Heard Of
Between 2013 and 2016, production at the Haynesville dropped due to the higher relative production costs compared to the Marcellus, for example, because the Haynesville formation lies at depths of 10,500- 13,500 feet, much deeper than the Marcellus depths of between 4,000 feet and 8,500 feet, the EIA says.
As early as in January this year, Rystad Energy said that the Haynesville Shale would soon reach record-high natural gas production levels.
“We conclude that Haynesville Shale’s revival, for the second year in a row, looks sustainable. Supported by its proximity to a new LNG export terminal, gas production will continue to grow, and achieving new all-time high gas production levels should happen within a matter of months,” Rystad Energy partner Artem Abramov said.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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IMHO we should be using this natural gas in America to replace diesel ASAP. The entire fleet could be easily converted to natural gas as CNG or LNG.