Friday, March 25, 2011
by Jack Z. Smith
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
There's a new voice in the debate over whether North Texas' Barnett Shale has been eclipsed by the Haynesville Shale as the No. 1 natural gas field in America.
Lippman Consulting, an El Paso-based natural gas consulting firm, is taking issue with a recent U.S. Energy Information Administration website posting that said the Haynesville in northwest Louisiana and Northeast Texas is the new leader in production among U.S. shales. The administration cited data from Bentek Energy, an Evergreen, Colo.-based consulting firm.
George Lippman, president of Lippman Consulting, has joined those questioning the assumption that Haynesville is the new top dog.
"Our data clearly shows that the Barnett production is still greater than the Haynesville production," Lippman said in an e-mail to the Star-Telegram after reading an article the newspaper published Tuesday on the subject.
Lippman said his firm's estimates show Barnett production averaging 5.52 billion cubic feet per day in February, easily exceeding the output of 5.03 billion cubic feet daily from Haynesville.
He said his company's calculations were derived from Texas Railroad Commission data, "plus the most-recent data from our Gas Processing Plant database that collects daily volumes at the outlet of all gas-processing plants in each region and then extrapolates that data back to wellhead volumes."
Steven Grape, the Dallas-based domestic reserves project manager for the Energy Information Administration, and Gene Powell, publisher of the Fort Worth-based Powell Shale Digest, said Monday that they need further clarification and confirming data before they can be assured that the Haynesville is the new No. 1.
Lippman said he expects that Haynesville will surpass the Barnett in production "in the months ahead ... but that has not happened yet."
Lippman Consulting, an El Paso-based natural gas consulting firm, is taking issue with a recent U.S. Energy Information Administration website posting that said the Haynesville in northwest Louisiana and Northeast Texas is the new leader in production among U.S. shales. The administration cited data from Bentek Energy, an Evergreen, Colo.-based consulting firm.
George Lippman, president of Lippman Consulting, has joined those questioning the assumption that Haynesville is the new top dog.
"Our data clearly shows that the Barnett production is still greater than the Haynesville production," Lippman said in an e-mail to the Star-Telegram after reading an article the newspaper published Tuesday on the subject.
Lippman said his firm's estimates show Barnett production averaging 5.52 billion cubic feet per day in February, easily exceeding the output of 5.03 billion cubic feet daily from Haynesville.
He said his company's calculations were derived from Texas Railroad Commission data, "plus the most-recent data from our Gas Processing Plant database that collects daily volumes at the outlet of all gas-processing plants in each region and then extrapolates that data back to wellhead volumes."
Steven Grape, the Dallas-based domestic reserves project manager for the Energy Information Administration, and Gene Powell, publisher of the Fort Worth-based Powell Shale Digest, said Monday that they need further clarification and confirming data before they can be assured that the Haynesville is the new No. 1.
Lippman said he expects that Haynesville will surpass the Barnett in production "in the months ahead ... but that has not happened yet."
