WESTERN HAYNESVILLE

The "Western Haynesville" is a quickly evolving play based on the deep Haynesville and Bossier geological formations.  Comstock Resources was the early mover and Aethon has followed suit.  Both companies have built large leasehold positions and drilled impressive wells.  Other major unconventional O&G companies are joining them as the play area expands.  Mitsui E&P USA has built a large position and Expand (Chesapeake) is heavily rumored to be leasing. There may be more major operators chasing this trend via the multiple brokerage firms that are active in the eastern expansion of the trend. The play area originally was comprised of Leon, Roberston and Freestone counties as the focus for early drilling. Leasing operations and "trend subsurface work" has seen the play expand to include Houston, Anderson, Cherokee and Nacogdoches counties.  The eastward expansion to Nacogdoches County now almost connects the western trend to the original Haynesville Shale fairway.  The prospective section in this trend ranges from 2000' to over 4000' thick, and the opportunity for multiple target intervals is highly probable based on some stacked lateral efforts by Comstock. The play is deep, hot and over pressured making it an expensive and challenging trend to drill, fracture stimulate and produce.

New Monster Gas Wells Are Outperforming Legacy Haynesville Deposits

New Monster Gas Wells Are Outperforming Legacy Haynesville Deposits

By Rystad Energy - Nov 24, 2025

  • The Western Haynesville gas play is gaining attention for its highly productive, deep, and overpressured wells, which are up to twice as productive as median legacy Haynesville wells.
  • The high productivity comes with a high cost, as drilling and completion (D&C) expenses are currently around $35 million per well, which is triple the cost of legacy Haynesville wells.
  • For the play to be economically viable and become a major supply source, operators must reduce D&C costs to approximately $25 million, which could enable the region to reach nearly 2 Bcfd of production by the end of 2030 with an eight-rig development program.

Link to full article with graphs:  https://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/New-Monster-Gas-Wells-Are-O...

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    Alan Herrington

    Aethon, in particular, has completed a number of prolific Western Haynesville wells.  They seem to outperform Comstock's typical well, perhaps due in  part to a variable choke system that they have mentioned in public comments.

    Here are some numbers for Aethon's first Western Haynesville wells.  The date of first production, total production through October 2025,  and the 12/25/2025 expected ultimate recovery (as calculated by Enverus) are shown for each well.

    Currie 2H:

    9/29/2022 

    23.2 BCF

    118.3 BCF

    River Ranch GU 1H: 

    1/24/2023 

    18.1 BCF

    73.8 BCF

    Koda 1H: 

    5/4/2023 

    19.1 BCF

    89.7 BCF

    Johnson Ranch 1HB: 

    1/5/2024 

    15.0 BCF

    88.0 BCF

    Golf Lake 1HB: 

    1/5/2024 

    14.5 BCF

    103.6 BCF

     

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