Excitement Building over Louisiana / Arkansas Brown Dense Shale

"We extensively reviewed the Brown Dense across the region and have indications that the right mix of reservoir depth, thickness, porosity, matrix permeability, sealing formations, thermal maturity and oil characteristics are found in the area of southern Arkansas and northern Louisiana," Steve Mueller, president and CEO of Southwestern, said in the earnings report....

...The Tuscaloosa Marine Shale area, which stretches from Texas through the center of Louisiana and into southwest Mississippi, has also garnered attention in recent months as a potential oil-and-gas producing region, becoming attractive as the price of oil has skyrocketed. In May, Devon said that it had accumulated 250,000 acres in the play, at about $180 apiece.

Even as the Haynesville Shale area surpassed the Barnett Shale area in Texas this year as the highest producer of shale gas in the country, some industry observers say the play remains at a disadvantage since it produces only natural gas, and has one of the highest costs of drilling among shale gas plays in the country.

Meanwhile, the Brown Dense shale area, like the Tuscaloosa Marine shale, is projected to be able to produce both oil and gas. Angelle believes that could help the state retain more drilling work if operators move rigs from the Haynesville Shale area, where he estimated that the drilling rig count this year was "probably down, about 30 percent." _NOLA

NOLATwo new shale plays are coming to Louisiana, each of which may just out-play the fabulous Haynesville Shale as a source of wealth. That's because the new plays -- Brown Dense Shale and the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale -- are likely to contain oil as well as gas.

Though leases and wells are springing up to explore the area, it won’t be known whether the successful and sometimes controversial hydraulic fracturing technique will uncover significant discoveries.

If the fracking works, however, the Brown Dense could be a better find than Haynesville because the wells may be striking both oil and natural gas. Haynesville only produces natural gas.

Houston-based Southwestern Energy Co. announced in an earnings report in July that it has leased 460,000 acres in the Brown Dense area for $150 million, or about $326 per acre. Last month, Southwestern drilled its first well in the formation in Arkansas, and the company plans to drill a well in Claiborne Parish by the end of this year.

Oklahoma City-based Devon Energy Corp. confirmed in an Aug. 3 earnings call that it has secured 40,000 acres in the Brown Dense area. The company, which has also been active in the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale area, has received a permit to drill a well in Morehouse Parish, Angelle said. _Theind.com

Shale oil & gas fever is sweeping the US from Bakken to Eagle Ford to Utica to Marcellus. And it appears that the phenomenon is just getting started.

This bonanza of shale energy may be one of the few things keeping the US economy from going under -- and it is accomplishing all that despite the fact that Obama's DOI and EPA would like to shut the whole enterprise down. Someday a psychiatrist will write a monograph on the Suicidal Energy Anorexia of the US Obama Administration.