Shreveport Shale

Your welcome United States. Sincerely, the Haynesville Shale. Considering the season, perhaps it’s more appropriate to say Merry Christmas, as the Haynesville Shale area looks to give Americans a 2011 with relatively low natural gas prices thanks to the abundant resource harvested in our local area. As of now, drilling has occurred at levels higher than dictated by the market, driven primarily by obligations found in lease agreements. The obligations will expire in time, returning drilling rates to a demand based drilling model, however, in the short term, Americans will be privy to more natural gas than immediately needed, meaning lower prices for consumers. Read the rest of this entry »

The natural gas and energy market is full of ups and downs, truths and lies, lucky finds and get rich quick schemes. Fortunately for the Haynesville Shale area, returns on their land has been nothing but profitable, sales have gone through cleanly and actual returns are being delivered to local residents of the community. This isn’t always the case, as some investors in shales, oil sites and new energy proposals are sitting targets for con artists out to make an easy buck. Such is the premise for the new FOX television series Lone Star, centering around an energy drilling businessman leading a double life. On one end he’s living with his girlfriend in a small Texas town, selling cross-state property with high energy producing potential to clients with no deed to the land or known potency in the area. When he returns home to his happy home with his wife, he is working his way up her father’s oil-business, with goals of earning rank enough to seize corporate assets and head for the hills. He must cope with legitimate feelings for both women, the constant betrayal and deception of all those around him and an overbearing father who has brought him up to be a trained criminal. Read the rest of this entry »

Amidst the global energy crisis and unstable foreign relations related to this matter, a backwoods town in Louisiana is sitting on what may turn out to be the biggest natural gas field in the world. This discovery has far-reaching effects, both positive and negative, on the United State, the community of Shreveport and the individual lives of citizens in this town. The upcoming movie, Haynesville, will examine just what, exactly, this all means.With the tagline “Three lives. A nation’s thirst for energy. And the find that could change it all,” this film attempts to portray the dramatic response that this find has garnered. One of the Haynesville citizens highlighted in the movie has focused her attention of the environmental protection of the community in regards to this natural gas discovery. Another individual, who is the pastor of a church, attempts to capitalize on the wealth brought to the community to open a Christian school. And still in another situation, a simple Louisiana man who has lived in the area for years struggles with what is most important. He is offered a large sum of money by an oil company but that means giving up the land he loves. Read the rest of this entry »

The tragic oil spill in the Gulf Coast which has devastated coastal Louisiana’s wildlife preserves and many residents’ livelihoods places a new found importance the developments taking place further inland in the state. The natural gas discovery and subsequent production in the Haynesville Shale region is as uplifting for members of the Louisiana community as the oil spill is heart wrenching for others. Shale gas and its potential to provide partial independence from crude oil has many scientists and policy makers optimistic that its development and increased production can help to prevent accidents like the oil spill in the future. Louisiana is now in a unique position, saddled with the mess resulting in one form of energy harvesting but blessed with the abundant resources of another cleaner replacement. On a global scale, the state can now serve as a microcosm for the world’s developing energy situation, with the trauma of a worst case oil scenario ravaging its southern beaches and the booming natural gas market showing signs of wealth and prosperity along its northwest border. Read the rest of this entry »

With the Haynesville Shale mines now one of the richest natural gas reservoirs in the United States, the greater Shreveport area has decided to stand united behind the energy paradigm shift that has taken hold over the region. Once a major player in the US oil industry, the city of Shreveport can trace a lot of its successful roots, followed by its inevitable decline, across the history of American oil production. The 80′s were a cruel time for the city of Shreveport as the oil and gas markets took a turn for the worse, forcing a lot of businesses to close and the local economy to dry up. The local recession drove many residents from the area, relocating to other unaffected locales across the country. Read the rest of this entry »

The Haynesville Shale natural gas drilling development has put a lot of money in hands that are unfamiliar with resting in such deep pockets. Before signing your first land leasing offer or collecting your first royalty check, make sure you are well versed in land drilling precedents. The Haynesville Shale is not the first natural gas reserve to turn ordinary country folk into a well-to-do community. It is important to practice safe money management habits, knowing exactly what kind of profits you can be expecting and for how long before making any major long term purchase decisions. All too often, a fortunate financial windfall results in eventual debt as people either invest or spend beyond their means. Use the following advice to maximize the money you can get out of your good luck: Read the rest of this entry »

Landowners in Shreveport’s much publicized Haynesville Shale area are in a fortunate position few land owners have seen since the Gold Rush days. Of course each individual situation differs, with some chunks of land paying huge dividends and others worth only marginally more than they would have been at market value not too long ago. With so much money flowing into the formerly humble hands of many area residents, a lot of landowners feel uneducated about their options and stand wary about underselling their land or getting cheated out of what they’re entitled to by slick energy companies. Sure, the “natural gas boom” is bound to greatly benefit the region, country and planet, but landsmen coming in to survey the earth, research property deeds and make purchase offers to the owners do not necessarily have the landowners best interests as their primary focus. Like all other promisingly lucrative endeavors, natural gas mining is, after all, a business and selling land to energy development companies is just another form of business negotiation. Read the rest of this entry »

While many people may have gotten wind of the “shale gas” production that’s been underway in Shreveport for a few years now, a lot of curious residents still don’t know exactly what shale is, why it’s important and what it could mean for the future of the city, state and world for that matter.Shale gas is an expanding form of natural gas that, as you may have guessed, produced out of shale, or fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock made up of a mixture of clay, quartz and calcite minerals among smaller components of other minerals. The role of shale gas in the natural gas market has increased in recent years with the advent of new technologies capable of harvesting the gas from untappable supplies across the world. Shale resources are believed to be fairly plentiful across the world, with current drilling and gas tapping efforts limited to the US and Canada. Scientists hope the new technology and improved method of harvesting shale gas will rapidly expand to European and worldwide shale reserves, providing significantly greater amounts of natural gas energy as we strive to avoid major energy crises in the not so distant future. The recent advancements regarding shale and its gas releasing potential has given way to large energy companies purchasing major land areas across Eurasia with shale deposits and further development of existing shale facilities in the United States, in hopes of cashing in on the developing technology. Thanks to the new method and technology, optimistic researchers project shale gas to account for half of the total natural gas production in North America in just 10 short years. Read the rest of this entry »