U.S. LNG Exports Are Soaring, Possibly Reviving Old Shale Plays

Old shale fields have remaining natural gas and the pipelines to transport the gas, even the original shale play, the Barnett Shale, that started the shale revolution that changed the world.

[Many thanks to my long-time friend, David Wadsworth, a retired Chemical Engineer from back in the Barnett Shale days in Houston, for pointing out the Reuters article that led me to write this Substack post. Dave is enjoying his retirement by building from scratch Mount Washington Distillers in Gilford, New Hampshire where he distills and distributes Pencilneck Spirit Small Barrel Blend and other spirits.]

Making good on his “Day 1” pledge to unleash American energy, President Trump declared a national energy emergency on January 20, 2025, followed by the executive order “Unleashing American Energy.” The following day, January 21, the Department of Energy reversed the Biden administration’s pause on permits for new liquefied natural gas export facilities. In recent weeks, four LNG facilities were approved: Commonwealth LNG, Golden Pass LNG, Delfin LNG, and Venture Global CP2 LNG.

Indeed, American LNG exports are soaring. According to the latest data released by the EIA, in their article titled The United States remained the world’s largest liquefied natural gas exporter in 2024, exporting 11.9 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in 2024:

EIA said:

U.S. LNG exports remained essentially flat compared with 2023 mainly because of several unplanned outages at existing LNG export facilities, lower natural gas consumption in Europe, and very limited new LNG export capacity additions since 2022.

While LNG export facilities were constrained during the Biden Administration, LNG exports are now set to soar.

More LNG exports require more U.S. natural gas production and more pipelines to carry the natural gas to the Gulf Coast, where the export terminals are in Texas and Louisiana. There has been some talk about building LNG export facilities on the East Coast to reduce transportation costs, which may eventually happen, but that will take time.

In the meantime, there has been a revival in shale fields closer to the Gulf Coast, especially the Haynesville Shale, which is just north of the LNG export facilities in South Louisiana. Reuters reported on March 28, 2025:

U.S. natural gas producers and investment firms are gearing up for more activity in Louisiana's Haynesville shale basin, positioning themselves for a boom in liquefied natural gas exports boosted by new approvals from President Donald Trump.

Haynesville's location in east Texas and northwest Louisiana is ideal for exports from LNG facilities and projects clustered on the nearby Gulf Coast.

Gas from Haynesville is easier to convert to LNG because it has fewer impurities that hinder liquefaction, such as nitrogen and hydrogen sulfide, said Gordon Huddleston, president of Aethon Energy, one of the largest gas producers in the basin. Aethon is exploring an IPO or asset sales, given demand for its product.

The biggest impediment to the revival of the Haynesville Shale is that it is not currently price competitive with natural gas from the Permian Basin even though it is much closer to the LNG export terminals in south Texas and Louisian. Much of the natural gas coming out of the Permian is associated gas, and the producers are primarily interested in selling crude oil, so they are willing to sell the natural gas for low or even negative prices to keep the oil flowing. However, the capacity of natural gas pipelines out of the Permian Basin is limited.

According to Reuters:

The breakeven price for new production in Haynesville is roughly $3.75 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), said David Seduski, head of North American natural gas at Energy Aspects, although it varies within the basin.

Operators say they will move more carefully than in the past to avoid a bust. They also face challenges, starting with the time and cost of drilling the deeper wells the Haynesville basin requires.

In other words, the demand for natural gas for LNG exports may require more natural gas than the Permian Basin can provide.

Another possible source of natural gas is the Barnett Shale, just west of Haynesville in Texas. The Barnett Shale is the original U.S. shale play and the birthplace of the U.S. shale revolution. Roughly centered around Fort Worth, Texas, the Barnett Shale changed the trajectory of the natural gas industry due to the efforts of independent oilman George P. Mitchell and his company Mitchell Energy & Development.

Mitchell’s first successful Barnett Shale well was the C.W. Slay #1, completed in 1981 near Newark, Texas, north of Fort Worth, but it took years of tinkering with well completion techniques to make the wells commercially viable. After almost going bankrupt many times, Mitchell’s persistence paid off when he tried using pure water with hydraulic fracturing in the vertical wells he was drilling, which was successful. A few years later, horizontal drilling was combined with hydraulic fracturing, and the shale revolution was off and running, transforming the oil and gas industry and the world forever.

Fort Worth, Texas, became the headquarters for dozens of companies leasing mineral rights from homeowners and drilling in mall and church parking lots. Fort Worth Mayor Michael Moncrief suggested that drilling companies needed to create an entity to educate the public about drilling in the Barnett Shale to help inform the public about the drilling process. In 2007, the consortium of drilling companies formed the Barnett Shale Energy Education Council, BSEEC, and named me the Executive Director. I am proud to have been a small part of the Barnett Shale development, serving as Executive Director of BSEEC from 2007 to 2015 when drilling had ceased.

From roughly 2004 to 2014, over 25,000 wells were drilled in the Barnett Shale. As other shales were developed, like the Haynesville in east Texas and western Louisiana and the Eagle Ford in south Texas, interest in the Barnett waned. Drilling in the Barnett Shale peaked in 2012, and drilling in the Barnett was pretty much over a few years later. A handful of wells are still drilled because some leases contained requirements for additional drilling.

The Barnett Shale likely still holds undeveloped natural gas reserves. In 2015, the USGS updated its evaluation of the Barnett Shale and concluded:

The Barnett Shale contains estimated mean volumes of 53 trillion cubic feet of shale natural gas, 172 million barrels of shale oil and 176 million barrels of natural gas liquids, according to an updated assessment by the U.S. Geological Survey. This estimate is for undiscovered, technically recoverable resources.

Of course, existing wells have been producing for years, and an updated estimate of the remaining reserves has been released. The remaining reserves are most certainly less than 53 trillion cubic feet.

If natural gas prices stay high and the demand for natural gas continues to surge, interest in the Barnett Shale may reemerge, and new hydraulic fracturing technologies and long laterals could show significant reserves in the Barnett.

My Take

If the worldwide demand for LNG continues growing as expected, US LNG facilities will need more natural gas, requiring additional pipelines that will take time to build. At some point, the original shale fields like the Barnett and the Haynesville may be revived. While the Haynesville is more likely to be redeveloped than the Barnett because it is closer to the LNG export facilities than the Barnett, it might still see some renewed activity in the coming years.

I have always been a hopeless optimist, so if duty calls, I stand ready to revive the Barnett Shale Energy Education Council and go for round two. I’m not holding my breath, but it is a fun thought. Besides, I enjoy writing on Substack.

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