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Permalink Reply by Steve P on April 30, 2020 at 7:18

Since these are production for 2019, would it be safe to say that they primarily reflect the production from newly drilled wells, say in 2017 - 2019?  And, hence, maybe also reflect the lease holdings of the companies most actively drilling in those fields?

There are some fields that CHK has strong holdings from its early leasing program, and, as we have noted in other postings, CHK has not been drilling a lot of wells.  Same is true for others like XTO.  I guess my point is that this rank order may or may not reflect the gas potential of the various fields, but perhaps a reflection of whether or not the field has one of the active drillers  holding acreage in that field, and vice versa.

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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on April 30, 2020 at 7:51

Keep in mind this is the top fifty,  there are hundreds more fields.  The first take away from the list is the domination of the Haynesville/Bossier Shale and the fact that the rest of the state contributes relatively little to state volume.  Much of south Louisiana has gas associated with oil production and I suspect that is the reason so many on the complete list have very modest volumes.  Field size and level of prior development certainly plays a part.  The first four on the list are large fields by areal extent.  Greenwood-Waskom is not as large but has had a lot of recent new development thanks to Comstock, Trinity, Pine Wave and Nadel & Gussman.  Since I keep up with production on a weekly basis I can tell you that some fields have falling volumes:  Terryville, Ruston, Choudrant and Hico-Knowles, as Range Resources cut their rig count long before the current downturn and the company is by far the operator of the most wells.  Fields like Redoak Bayou, Canadian Bayou and Chemard Lake are small in size but have quite good wells.  Some fields have seen significant rig count increase over the last year or so:  Alabama Bend, Bayou San Miguel, Converse and Lake Bistineau will probably move up the list for 2020.  New wells certainly have a part in all this but there are lots of moving parts: field size, number of operating companies, specific operating companies and even the need to HBP some leases.

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