Haynesville Shale

Map showing distribution of Haynesville Shale and other Unconventional Hydrocarbon Plays within Louisiana
Haynesville Shale stratigraphic column for Texas

The Haynesville Shale is an informal, popular name for a Jurassic Period rock formation that underlies large parts of southwestern Arkansas, northwest Louisiana, and East Texas. It lies at depths of 10,500 to 13,000 feet below the land’s surface.[1][2] It is part of a large rock formation which is known by geologists as the Haynesville Formation. The Haynesville Shale underlies an area of about 9,000 square miles and averages about 200 to 300 feet thick. The Haynesville Shale is overlain by sandstone of the Cotton Valley Group and underlain by limestone of the Smackover Formation.[3][4]

It contains vast quantities of recoverable natural gas. This natural gas is known as "shale gas" because the wells produce from low permeability mudstones that are also the source for the natural gas. It was known to contain large quantities of natural gas prior to 2008. However, prior to that time, it was uneconomic to extract the natural gas. As a result of rising gas prices and improved technology in hydraulic fracturing and directional drilling, it became possible to extract the gas from the Haynesville Shale in an economic and cost-effective manner.[3]

  1. ^ Anderson, E. G. (1979) Basic Mesozoic Study in Louisiana, the North Coastal Region, and the Gulf Basin. Archived 2011-11-25 at the Wayback Machine Folio Series no. 3. Louisiana Geological Survey, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 58 sheets.
  2. ^ Eversull, L.G. (1984) Regional Cross Sections, North Louisiana. Archived 2011-11-25 at the Wayback Machine Folio Series no. 7. Louisiana Geological Survey, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 10 sheets.
  3. ^ a b Ground Water Protection Council and ALL Consulting (2009) Modern Shale Gas Development in the United States: A Primer. Reported prepared under contract no. DE-FG26-04NT15455 for U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Fossil Energy and National Energy Technology Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, Washington DC. 96 pp.
  4. ^ Salvador, A. (1991) Chapter 8. Triassic–Jurassic. In A. Salvador, ed., pp. 131- 180, The Geology of North America, vol. J, The Gulf of Mexico Basin. Boulder, Colorado Geological Society of America. ISBN 978-0-8137-5216-7