APEX Natural Gas expands in northwest Louisiana with multiple drilling permits
APEX Natural Gas expands in northwest Louisiana with multiple drilling permits
- BY LIZ SWAINE | Staff writer 12/ 9/2025 shreveportbossieradvocate.com
It appears that APEX Natural Gas is once again expanding their reach. Bloomberg News is reporting two new deals: one for $430 million to buy East Texas Comstock acreage from Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, the other for Louisiana acreage from Azul Resources, LLC, a smaller Haynesville Shale player. The deals, according to Bloomberg, could close this month and in January.
APEX is owned by the hedge fund Citadel, which purchased the company — then called Paloma Natural Gas — for roughly $1 billion in March of this year.
On their homepage, APEX states, "With a deep inventory of undeveloped locations, APEX is committed to being a premier provider of clean-burning natural gas to the North American market."
Shreveport-based mineral consultant Skip Peel says even with the sizeable investment, APEX is still a smaller player in the Haynesville Shale, and significant interest is now being shown in the relatively new Western Haynesville between Waco and College Station that some energy businesses are referring to as "the new frontier."
Though at greater depths, natural gas in the western Haynesville has so far proved to be high pressure and very productive.
Hart Energy says Comstock Resources, Mitsui and Aethon are taking the lead in exploration there.
Locally, though, APEX is active and has applied for or received drilling permits in Caddo, Bossier, DeSoto, Red River, and other northwest Louisiana parishes. Peel says Citadel spent a lot of money on purchasing Paloma/APEX and is now spending more on new acreage. He believes the drilling activity, even with the price of natural gas relatively low, is intended to create cash flow.
Peel says wells cost anywhere from $10 million upward to $15 million. "They're so complex compared to what came before and those rigs probably run anywhere from $20,000 to $25,000 a day."
A number of APEX' permits are for multiple wells in one section. One site has seven wells, one six wells, two of them have four, and others have multiples.
"You pay by the day for the rig. That's one of the reasons why these companies push so hard to drill faster and have fewer days that they have to pay for that rig. When they do these groups, it's nice because they just walk it (the rig) over 50 feet and start drilling the next one."
After the drilling is done, Peel said, it's time for the frac crew to get to work. Once done, the valve is opened, and natural gas begins flowing.
The most recent Department of Natural Resources Office of Conservation listings show that APEX has 253 wells in Caddo, Bossier, Sabine, Webster, DeSoto, Red River and Bienville. Eight of the permits came this month alone.
Peel says the larger players — Expand, Comstock, Aethon — are drilling, but perhaps only one well to APEX's multiples. "Their level of activity is nothing compared to APEX right now."
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on
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Dorada Energy and Cypress Energy. All the leases I have reviewed so far are in Apex's name.
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Permalink Reply by bruce bratton on -
What are the other parishes other than those listed in the article for drilling permits?
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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on
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Bienville and Sabine.
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Permalink Reply by bruce bratton on
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Are the permits in Bienville for Haynesville? I wasn’t aware it went that far east.
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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on
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Yes. Bienville has had Haynesville Shale development since the beginning of the play by Questar. Now Aethon and Comstock are the operators. The eastern edge of the fairway as currently defined is around the eastern side of Lake Bistineau. The Lake Bistineau, Sibley and Jamestown fields but mainly Lake Bistineau.
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Permalink Reply by Debbie on
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Great article! However why am I not seeing a single active producer in the past few months from them despite all the drilling?
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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on
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Apex has well over one hundred producing wells, Debbie. So, where are you looking? Most of the inner city drilling is relatively new and it takes months for those wells to be drilled, completed and turned to sales. Then a few more months before any lessors see royalty income.
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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on
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Apex has 253 wells in total including producing, drilling and permitted. Enter Apx in the Operator box, choose Apex Natural Resources and click "Execute"
https://sonlite.dnr.state.la.us/ords/r/sonris_pub/sonris_data_porta...
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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on
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If you want to see the wells that Apex has permitted and drilled, use the "Permit Date From" and "Permit Date To" boxes. I entered 1/1/2025 and 12/19/2025. There were 87 wells on that list. Keep in mind that Apex has acquired a number of existing Haynesville units with producing wells that were drilled by other companies but are now operated by Apex.
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Hi Skip, I searched for Apex wells that are 'Active Producing'. But the latest "well status date" is July 28, 2025 (when their status turned to 'Active - Producing'. They do have many new wells that are tagged 'Completed'. Doesn't that mean they have not turned to sales any of the wells that they completed later in the year?
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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on
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When a well is reported complete to the state it gets a Code 10 status. I haven't checked lately but in the summer there were many wells reported complete that did not have any reported monthly production. The SONRIS staff had been decimated. Short staffed and without some long time, experienced staffers. This "overhaul" started with the new administration after the election of Landry. For the better part of a year the dysfunction was continual. Operators can not report production until they are issued an LUW code number and for some reason they were not being issued and operators were not reporting production volumes. At the height of the dysfunction I counted about 117 completed wells with no production reported and about half were over a year past their completion date. Thankfully Carrie came back on staff and has been working to institute the required database changes. It will take time and I hope members will be patient and respectful as she tries to complete the work. Status 31 wells are generally drilled and waiting on completion. To get a rough idea of when the frack will occur you can go down to the bottom of the Well Scout page and look for a Work Permit for the frack. As best I can tell the frack occurs within a few weeks of the beginning date although the permit is effective for a year. There is a lag in reporting by the operators to the state so it helps to click on a specific well to see if the Well Scout shows a completion report
There are many different ways to get to the well file for a specific well using the Will Information > Well Information Search. I think members should try it different ways to see what works best for them. You can search my operator, by section-township-range, well serial number or by well name as examples.
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