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.


landowner

$16B Gas Power Project Coming To Anderson County!

WASHINGTON – A $16 billion gas-fired power facility is coming to Anderson County, placing one of the nation’s largest energy projects in rural East Texas.

It’s one of three new energy infrastructure projects President Donald Trump plans to announce Thursday, part of a $550 billion investment package Japan pledged in October. Among the details:

  • Project: Natural gas-fired power generation hub.
  • Capacity: Up to 5.2 GW of natural gas-fired generation, capable of serving up to 5 GW of large-load demand.
  • Operator: NextEra Energy Resources.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is scheduled to arrive Thursday morning at the White House, kicking off a visit originally expected to focus on trade and strengthening the U.S.-Japanese alliance as China’s influence grows in Asia.

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2026/03/19/east-texas-coun...

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    Oil & Gas Pro

    Rock Man

    Location definitely tied to the Western Haynesville / Bossier gas trend

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    landowner

    Alan Herrington

    The planned Anderson County facility is expected to produce 5.2 gigawatts of power.  I asked grok (AI assistant) to identify how many plants in the US can produce at least 5 gigawatts.  

    "Only one power plant in the United States is capable of producing more than 5 gigawatts (GW) of power.

    The Grand Coulee Dam in Washington state, a hydroelectric facility operated by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, has an installed nameplate capacity of approximately 6,809 MW (6.809 GW). This makes it the largest by capacity in the US.

    From reliable sources like Wikipedia's list of largest US power stations (based on recent data) and cross-referenced with EIA-related information:

    • Grand Coulee Dam: ~6,809 MW (hydroelectric).
    • The next largest facilities fall well below 5 GW, such as:
      • Vogtle Electric Generating Plant (nuclear, Georgia): ~4,536 MW.
      • Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station (Arizona): ~3,937 MW.
      • Other major plants (nuclear, gas, coal, etc.) top out around 3–4 GW.

    No other operational power plant reaches or exceeds 5 GW. This is consistent across lists of the top US stations by installed capacity, where Grand Coulee stands alone above that threshold. Note that "capable of producing" here refers to nameplate/installed capacity (the maximum rated output), not actual generation, which varies by factors like water availability for hydro or capacity factors for nuclear/gas plants.

    For context, the US has over 12,000 utility-scale power plants with total utility-scale capacity exceeding 1.3 TW (terawatts), but very few individual sites aggregate to multi-GW scales due to practical, environmental, and engineering limits. Large hydro dams like Grand Coulee are exceptional in this regard."
    This highlights the scale of the facility planned for Anderson County!
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