In this month's Acadiana Business cover story, out on newsstands today in The Independent Weekly, contributing writer Steven K. Landry explores the potential impact of northwest Louisiana's Haynesville Shale on the state and Acadiana. Since word of the natural-gas play broke in March, it has caught the attention of the world, boggling the minds of oil veterans, politicians and newly made millionaires. Landry writes:
To put Haynesville in perspective: About 10,000 feet below the ground where this Mansfield group was gathering, the Haynesville Formation could have up to 300 trillion cubic feet of natural gas ensconced within its 150-million-years-old, difficult-to-get-to, Jurassic Period-borne shale-rock sediment. Think 300 trillion basketballs filled with a vital, clean and cheap alternative-energy source. The nearest play to that is the 30 trillion cubic feet of gas gleaned in the last five years in the adjacent Barnett Shale field of east Texas.
The Haynesville figures trump all others, says Lafayette-based landman James “Pit” Hesterly. “One trillion cubic feet is considered phenomenol,” he says.
Read the flippin' paper here.