Everyone has been excited and interested in the leasing activity created by Anadarko in North Caddo Parish and rightly so. I think you will soon be seeing an increase in rigs as well. Watch for them. Instead of looking and seeing only one of the larger rigs running north of Shreveport...you should soon be seeing more. I would venture to guess four for now. 

Some things that I believe held NC back on this type of drilling was the massive amounts of land already held by production (by over 100 different operators) from shallow formation wells that were drilled as far back as the 20's. This did and has created a nightmare for opportunities to lease the larger one piece tracts needed to form units to drill the deeper wells. Add this to the exorbitant leasing bonuses created by an over zealous CHK and others at the beginning of the Haynesville and one can begin to understand why NC was so quickly abandoned. 

This problem has been lessened because the larger operators and their leasing agents have now had the time to analyze where and how leasing can be most effective to explore this area once again. They have also been able to work with the smaller operators already producing some of these leases as well as the landowners with large blocks of land to negotiate leases with fair and reasonable terms for all involved.

The deeper formations being once again a target in NC should also help to create a more extensive and updated information base for other productive formations as well. This information could be an opportunity to explore ideas of using new drilling and completion techniques for these formations leaving the door open for even more possibilities.

A lot of people were disappointed when NC was abandoned at the beginning of the Haynesville for the more lucrative areas south. There is a huge plus to the long pause between the beginning of the Haynesville shale and the recent renewed activity. A lot has been learned with shales. The wanna-be's that once tried NC are gone and the experience of operators with time tested techniques are here. Now we will see what happens.

Let the march north begin!!   AGAIN....LOL!!!!