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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on June 3, 2018 at 4:05

Lease hounds and mineral buyers follow the rigs.  Most buyers focus on minerals that are producing in areas of good rock or acreage that appears to have a good chance of development in the near future.  They look to lease or buy as close to the drill bit as possible, if not under it. 

For years Haynesville Shale activity was mostly XTO and BP.  Both have increased the number of rigs they are running in E Texas significantly.  On top of that there have been sales of producing and prospective acreage by a number of companies.  The new operators of that acreage come in with a drilling program where previously there was little activity.  There are 17 rigs drilling Haynesville/Bossier wells (Carthage).  CCI, Rockcliff, Amplify, R. Lacy and Tanos are all recent additions.

Nacogdoches: BP - 2, XTO - 1

Panola:  CCI - 1, Sabine O&G - 1, Rockcliff - 3, Amplify - 1, R. Lacy - 1 and Tanos - 1.

San Augustine:  XTO - 3, BP - 1, Aethon - 1

Shelby:  XTO - 2

Rusk has two rigs but they are drilling formations other than Carthage.  Sabine - Minden and CCI - Oak Hill.

Angelina has drawn a good bit of development capital the last year or so.  BP has 4 rigs drilling Carthage there.

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Permalink Reply by cicero on June 16, 2018 at 12:51

Skip,  Chesapeake in 2009 leased my family surveys in Shelby county, m.d.white, p.w.harvey and g.h.patterson.  No well was drilled.  Do you know of any interest in that area?  Thanks, Cicero

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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on June 16, 2018 at 13:02

Cicero, Shelby County requires a level of detailed knowledge that I do not have along with a lack of knowledge location-wise regarding your listed surveys.  You need Julie to give you an opinion.  She knows more about the  E Texas Haynesville/Bossier fairway than anyone I know.

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Permalink Reply by jffree1 on June 16, 2018 at 14:28

The only operator active in Shelby Co. now is XTO. They have some acreage around Huxley and south to the Sabine & San Augustine line. CHK had permitted a couple of wells in the area you are asking about but they were allowed to expire and most of the operators around that area were/are drilling shallower formations if they are drilling at all. Most everything since about 2010 has been to the south.

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Permalink Reply by Spring Branch,mineral owner on June 3, 2018 at 9:37

Skip, correct me if I’m wrong: It’s the Carthage Field in East Texas but the Haynesville and Bossier formations within the Carthage Field. Otherwise things get too confusing.

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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on June 3, 2018 at 9:55

In every county I follow, Haynesville and Bossier shale wells are classified as Carthage.  Yes, confusing.  Angelina County is far from the town of Carthage but the HA/BO wells there are all classed as "Carthage".  The well names indicate whether the producing formation is Haynesville or Bossier, H or HB.  Seems field names are not geographic as in Louisiana.  They are based on formations.  We can ask Julie to provide a more detailed explanation.

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Permalink Reply by jffree1 on June 3, 2018 at 14:36

There was some discussion when they were talking about the consolidation that the rock might be different enough in the south end to warrant a different field name but it was eventually decided that, no, it was all the same formation and it would all be named the same no matter how far from the official discovery well.

XTO still has one well in Nacogdoches Co. that is in the Boggy Creek (CV Shale). The discovery well (and only well in the field) is the Longhorns DU #3. It was originally a horizontal "wildcat" permit in their Longhorns DU (HA) unit but they completed it as a vertical and named a new field. Just one of the oddities to come out of the new field frenzy a decade ago.

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Permalink Reply by jffree1 on June 3, 2018 at 14:32

The field names are in two parts. The first part is the field (locality/place name) and the second part is the formation name. When they started drilling Haynesville/Bossier horizontally over here operators were filing "new field" applications from Harrison County down to San Augustine County. There were about seven or eight of them named but they were all HA/BO. Eventually Devon, and maybe others, asked for a field consolidation. That was granted by around 2010 (may have been a bit earlier) and all of those fields were merged together under "Carthage" because Devon had some of the earliest vertical wells in the HA in the Carthage (Haynesville Shale) in Panola County and they had the discovery well. I'm not sure if it was Devon or CHK who drilled the first true hz well in the field but Devon was drilling short directional wells quite a bit before CHK set off the leasing firestorm in 2008. Haynesville and Bossier are considered different zones within the same formation over here. No matter where it lands it's called Haynesville Shale.

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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on June 3, 2018 at 14:56

I see horizontal gas wells not listed as Carthage.  What formation is the target in these wells.

KJ Energy - Panola - Brachfield

Sabine O&G - Rusk - Minden

CCI - Rusk - Oak Hill

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Permalink Reply by jffree1 on June 4, 2018 at 1:27

They are all Cotton Valley. The Amplify and Tanos wells you put under HA in Panola Co. are in the Carthage (Cotton Valley).

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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on June 4, 2018 at 2:54

Clear as mud!  Thanks.

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Permalink Reply by Bill R on June 3, 2018 at 16:16

Thanks to all of you... Landmen have not been too forward on whom there are checking on leasing for,nor which Play that they are thinking of. At this point they are just requesting Owner names or offering to pay 10X + on existing wells. Until I get a legitimate NAME and COMPANY from them, "I am not leasing"... nor will I sell to any of them, no matter what they offer. I will say that thanks to this site, I am learning and helping to guide some of the rest of the Family in these decisions.

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