Colby Cooper-Barnett Shale- Colby Cooper Inc.

One of the most exciting natural gas development plays in the United States has drawn current drilling activity to more than 100 rigs in north central Texas in a geological formation known as the Barnett Shale. Although the Barnett Shale is considered primarily gas, the United States Department of the Interior/USGS estimates reserves at nearly 100 million barrels of undiscovered oil. It is considered a “blanket formation” since it is laterally continuous across a vast area and is productive in fifteen different counties throughout the Fort Worth Basin in the northern portion of the state. It is the largest producing gas field in Texas, yielding more than 50% of all shale gas produced in the United States. Production has been firmly established with over 4,700 successfully completed wells drilled, the field encompassing over 500,000 acres. It is currently producing in excess of one billion cubic feet per day. Devon Energy is the largest U.S. based independent oil and gas producer and the largest operator in the field. Devon Energy has experienced a success rate at “close to one hundred percent,” comments Mr. Scott Coddy of Devon; he also estimates that approximately 85% of all gas in the Barnett Shale is still in place. Devon Energy's fracturing methods are now widely used and considered commonplace. In a period of only a few years, the field has evolved from a marginal petroleum resource to the largest field in Texas. High oil and gas prices have brought Texas the highest levels of drilling activity since the winter of 1985-86. Describing what would be common knowledge to every gas producer in the Barnett Shale area, a Terax Energy press release dated January 6, 2006 reports that in the Barnett Shale, “There have been very few disappointments attributed to the low risk, blanket nature of the productive formation. Driven by technological advances in fracturing, drilling natural gas production has now reached record levels. Today the Barnett Shale is living up to its potential and opportunities to expand the play abound. To say the play has exploded is an understatement.” Growth increased 20% from 2004 to 2005, a percentage which was then surpassed in 2006.