THE FOLLOWING RANKING AND NET ACREAGE POSITIONS ARE TAKEN FROM PUBLIC INFORMATION AVAILABLE ONLINE. THEY DO NOT REPRESENT CURRENT TOTALS AS MANY OF THE REPORTS ARE SEVERAL MONTHS OLD. ACREAGE POSITIONS HAVE BEEN ROUNDED UP TO THE NEAREST 1,000. THE LIST IS NOT PRESENTED AS A COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS AS I WAS UNABLE TO LOCATE TOTALS FOR SOME OPERATING COMPANIES. OF SIGNIFICANT NOTE, I HAVE FOUND NO ACREAGE TOTAL FOR SHELL WESTERN E&P, INC. (SWEPI). IT IS UNCLEAR IF SWEPI'S ACRES ARE INCLUDED IN THOSE REPORTED FOR ENCANA. OTHER HS OPERATORS WHO HAVE APPLIED TO THE STATE FOR DRILLING AND PRODUCTION UNITS THAT ARE NOT REPRESENTED IN THE RANKING INCLUDE: SAMSON CONTOUR; CAMTERRA RESOURCES, BRIDAS ENERGY (BEUSA); CYPRESS OPERATING, CORONADO; FOSSIL; ARK-LA-TEX ENERGY; LONG PETROLEUM; PINNACLE OPERATING; FRANKS OPERATING; STROUD PETROLEUM; NADEL GUSSMAN JETTA; WILL DRILL AND J-W OPERATING. OTHER OPERATORS NOT LISTED BUT GENERALLY RECOGNIZED TO HAVE DIRECT OR INDIRECT OPERATING RELATIONSHIPS WITH THOSE LISTED INCLUDE: KCS RESOURCES; MATADOR;INDIGO; WINCHESTER, AND MAINLAND RESOURCES. THE AREA ENCOMPASSED BY THE PLAY ALSO CONTAINS SIGNIFICANT ACREAGE THAT IS HELD BY PRODUCTION BY COUNTLESS SMALLER OPERATORS. SOME ADDITIONAL ACREAGE IS HELD BY NONOPERATING INVESTORS. I OFFER THE ACREAGE POSITION ESTIMATES AS A MEANS OF EVALUATING HOW MANY ACRES REMAIN UNLEASED IN THE AREA OF THE HS PLAY. THAT TOTAL IS UNKNOWN AT THIS TIME AS THE BOUNDARIES OF THE PROSPECTIVE AREA HAVE NOT BEEN FULLY DEFINED. CHESAPEAKE ENERGY HAS STATED THAT ITS ESTIMATE IS 3.5M ACRES. IT IS BEYOND MY ABILITY AT THIS TIME TO BREAK DOWN THE ACREAGE POSITIONS BY STATE.

HAYNESVILLE SHALE E&P COMPANIES BY NET ACREAGE POSITIONS AS OF SEPTEMBER, 2008

CHESAPEAKE/PXP 700,000
ENCANA CORP. (USA) 350,000
PETROHAWK 300,000
DEVON ENERGY 220,000
EOG RESOURCES 160,000
EXCO RESOURCES 115,000
XTO ENERGY 105,000
FOREST OIL 95,000
GOODRICH PETROLEUM 65,000
ANADARKO PETROLEUM 60,000
PENN-VIRGINIA 60,000
COMSTOCK 55,000
CABOT OIL &GAS 50,000
ST. MARY LAND & EXPLORATION 50,000
SANDRIDGE 35,000
QUESTAR 30,000
EL PASO 28,000
GMXR 28,000
NOBLE ENERGY 19,000
UNIT CORP. 12,000
ENCORE ACQUISITION 7,000
BERRY PETROLEUM 5,000

SUBTOTAL: 2,549,000

115,200 *

TOTAL: 2,664,200 Acres

* In the interest of projecting as accurate a total as possible, I am adding acreage in unit applications by a number of those operating companies mentioned in my introduction but not contained in the ranking. These are the companies that I did not mention as having a known relationship to those included in the rankings.