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.
A number of entities associated with Aethon recorded six lease memos in Anderson County today. These leases cover more than 10,000 acres in Anderson and Houston Counties (2 surveys in Anderson and 14 in Houston):
Anderson: 5,300 acres
Houston: 3,000
One tract of 1,910 acres located in one survey in Anderson and 6 in Houston.
Since the assets of Aethon have been acquired by Mitsubishi, my assumption is that the leasing is for Mitsubishi, but we won’t know for sure until an assignment document is filed.
Here are the leasing entities:
Aethon United BR LP: 45%
Aethon III HV LLC: 45%
PEO Haynesville Holdco LLC: 5%
PEO Haynesville Holdco III LLC: 5%
Here’s a map of the surveys that contain leased acreage:

The two surveys at the top are in Anderson, and the rest are in Houston.
Expand has done quite a bit of leasing in this same area. In fact, Aethon and Expand have both leased acreage in the two Anderson County surveys and 10 of the 14 Houston County surveys. Here’s a map of Expand’s leasing in Anderson and Houston Counties:
One interesting fact about the new leases: They have a three-year primary term with no extension.
Will be interesting to see what happens next with these new leases!
Oil & Gas Pro
Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant
Thanks, Alan. I agree that the three year primary terms with no extension option are surprising.
Mar 16
Oil & Gas Pro
Rock Man
Could be that this is not tied to Mitsubishi area and that Aethon is building a new footprint in this trend
Mar 16