From The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, “Documentary about natural gas field debuts on CNBC,” announcing tonight’s premiere of Haynesville, a documentary film that tracks the lives of three people affected by the big Haynesville Shale natural gas field in Louisiana and East Texas.

The full title is Haynesville: A Nation’s Hunt for an Energy Future. The film outlines potential economic benefits of the field and shale gas development in the U.S., as well as concerns of residents it could directly affect.

The three “stars” of the film are Kassi Fitzgerald, a single mother and community activist who tries to help secure a favorable gas lease agreement and environmental protections for the rural area where she lives; Reegis Richard, a pastor who uses drilling proceeds to benefit his growing church and expand education and recreation opportunities for youths; and Mike Smith, a self-described “country boy” and lover of the outdoors who marvels at his new millionaire status while trying to keep his rural-oriented life on an even keel.

Haynesville will premiere tonight 9 p.m. Eastern on CNBC. The one hour documentary will repeat at 10 p.m., midnight and 1 a.m.

The movie’s website is www.haynesvillemovie.com. We’re already awaiting the sequel, Marcellus!

In his speech to the State Chamber of Oklahoma on Thursday, National Association of Manufacturers’ President John Engler discussed jobs creation through energy, infrastructure and exports. On the energy front, he discussed the astonishing expansion of domestic natural gas production (and potential production), thanks to technological advances in hydrofracturing.

Following are his prepared remarks from that section:

In Oklahoma, a proud tradition of supporting energy has helped keep your unemployment 3 percentage points below the national average.

You’re one of the states benefiting from development of shale gas, in this case the Woodford Shale. In Texas, there’s the Barnett Shale; in Arkansas, the Fayetteville Shale; in Louisiana the Haynesville Shale. Since 2000, gas from shale has grown from less than 1 percent of the nation’s production to about 10 percent.

Perhaps the most promising development is the Marcellus Shale underneath Pennsylvania and New York and West Virginia. Analysts say the Marcellus alone has enough gas to meet the nation’s needs for at least 14 years.

These natural gas deposits are close to northeastern population and manufacturing centers – they could be a real boon to consumers and industry in the area. But environmental groups have stirred up opposition, for example, in New York State, where there’s a pitched battle going on over natural gas drilling.

Opponents play on people’s fears of a technology that’s actually been in use for decades –- hydrofracturing. Thanks to massive R&D by energy companies, the technology has been improved, made even safer, and combined with horizontal drilling to open these shale deposits.

Oklahoma’s unemployment rate in October was 7 percent.

Looks like shale is where the action is these days, at least when it comes to oil and natural gas development. We’ve previously mentioned development of the Barnett Shale formation in Texas, the Bakken in North Dakota and the Marcellus formation in Pennsylvania and New York, and now add to the list the Haynesville Formation.

From Dow-Jones, an article that focuses on Chesapeake Energy‘s activities:

Chesapeake has been a particularly active acquirer of land in the Haynesville play. Like other shale reservoirs, Haynesville requires more costly and technologically advanced drilling techniques to extract gas embedded deep in rock formations, but high natural gas prices have made such endeavors profitable.

 

According to the most optimistic estimates, Haynesville could produce up to 245 trillion cubic feet equivalent of natural gas, enough to supply the entire U.S. for a decade.

High energy prices and new technological developments in horizontal drilling and hydrofracturing have made these kind of developments profitable. To be sure, there are obstacles to overcome. From the Shreveport Times.

BATON ROUGE — Producing natural gas from the Haynesville Shale is not as simple as drilling a hole in the ground,  says Don Briggs, head of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association.

Unlike most places, the gas is not trapped in reservoirs. It’s in small vertical fissures in the horizontal bands of shale that have to be fractured by intense water pressure pumped 12,000 feet underground.

When the gas is in a pool big enough to remove, “we do not have today the infrastructure in north Louisiana to take that gas out” because of an insufficient pipeline system to handle it, Briggs told the Baton Rouge Press Club on Monday. Roads in the largely rural area also are a problem.

“Water is a big concern right now,” he said, because aquifers in northwest Louisiana are insufficient to supply the millions of gallons of water needed for the fracturing process. “They may have to transport water long distances.

The Times also has a location map on the drilling, very interesting.

In addition to the technical problems, there will also be the political challenges, that is, opposition from constituencies who do not acknowledge the energy needs of a modern, prosperous, free society.