So you get a notice about nearby gas drilling in Shreveport, Bossier. What then?

BY LIZ SWAINE | Staff writer  shreveportbossieradvocate.com

South Shreveport residents in sections of Twelve Oaks subdivision have a clear view of one of the newest natural gas drilling rigs in the area, but not because they particularly want to.

In December, property owners there and along the nearby stretch of Flournoy Lucas and Ellerbe Roads received ‘Pre-Application Notices’ from APEX.

In the notice were requests the natural gas exploration and production company had made to the Louisiana Department of Conservation regarding Haynesville Shale drilling that could impact the nearby area.

Homeowners in south Shreveport haven't been the only property owners in northwest Louisiana getting such letters. Drilling activity throughout urban areas of Shreveport and Bossier City has been on the increase. 

The request made by APEX for their Flournoy Lucas site was a common one, a box that has to be checked as part of the drilling process, said Shreveport mineral consultant Skip Peel. “I can understand why they do it,” Peel said of the state’s notice requirement. 

“Because they send it not just to the people that own property or own minerals within the unit, but also to 1000 feet immediately adjacent to those units, because here comes a whole bunch of traffic and noise and maybe some dust, and so it's just like giving you a warning, this is what's coming.”

Any property owner who gets a notice can request a local conference, and a resident of the Esplanade subdivision did. APEX loaded up their charts and data maps for a January 16 meeting in downtown Shreveport.

APEX consulting geologist David Comeaux showed attendees the 15 proposed drill sites at a single 18-acre well pad site off of east Flournoy Lucas.

“It's starting from a small pad, it's an 18-acre pad, but they're going to be drilling in all directions. They're going to be drilling to the north, they're going to be drilling to the southwest, in the southeast, and eventually they're going to be drilling to the northwest here, where today we're not proposing any, but we will be in the future,” he said.

“They basically drill a hole, I'm going to just say, basically straight down about two miles. In these cases, they're drilling them at an angle, but they're basically going down about two miles, and then they're turning the bit to go horizontal.”

“The drilling across all of these areas, you know, will be underneath any residential areas. It’s way down there."

Comeaux talked about well flows and why Haynesville Shale drilling units are the size they are, and the geology of the shale play and then opened it up to questions. There were plenty.

“I live right next door,” said one attendee. “It’s not stopping any sound,” he said of a fence around the well pad which was under construction. “The lights are coming into the back of the house.”

Another resident had a similar concern. “I can sit in my living room, and I can see the guys on the derrick, and it's like a trumpet. You got an open area that viewed right toward my house. I can see the people walking all around on the pad.”

“I've already got a huge chip in my windshield because of your trucks,” said another, “so I'm just going to ask the question that everybody's probably thinking. I'm going to skip the pleasantries, if you don't mind. How's it going to affect myself, my home, my resale?”

Questions followed about water wells, possible pollution, how long drilling would take, potential royalties and a litany of other concerns. All were addressed by APEX representatives, but not all the answers were what some of the homeowners said they wanted to hear.

Peel said that’s how the meetings work. He said after the local gathering, the process returns to Baton Rouge, “and once it gets down there, it pretty much gets rubber stamped. It's very rare that any of these unit applications are declined,” said Peel. He said that it is also rare when someone requests a local meeting.

The state Department of Conservation approved APEX' unit applications, the subject of the January Shreveport meeting, in late April, but work on APEX’s Flournoy Lucas pad site had been going on for months before.

“They build the pads where the rigs are going to drill from, sometime months in advance of an application,” confirmed Peel. “Site work could be either in anticipation of getting approval from the state or because horizontal drilling can extend so far, it could be for drilling in a section that they've already gotten approval for.”

“Everybody's been doing this dance for decades and decades and decades and know how it goes. And so, if any application is turned down, it's extraordinarily rare. It doesn't happen often.”