National and Global Petroleum Assessment

Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources in the 

Haynesville Formation, U.S. Gulf Coast, 2016

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

Fact Sheet 2017–3016

April 2017 Printed on recycled paper

Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated undiscovered, technically recoverable mean 

resources of 1.1 billion barrels of conventional oil and 195.8 trillion cubic feet of gas in the Upper Jurassic Haynesville Formation in 

onshore lands and State waters of the U.S. Gulf Coast region.

Figure 1. Map showing approximate boundaries for the four assessment units 

(AUs) in the Upper Jurassic Haynesville Formation. 

27°

29°

31°

33°

–100° –98° –96° –94° –92° –90° –88° –86° –84°

Source: U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service

TEXAS

MEXICO

OKLAHOMA

ALABAMA

MISSISSIPPI

ARKANSAS

GEORGIA

WESTERN

GULF

LOUISIANAMISSISSIPPI

SALT BASIN

GULF OF MEXICO

0 100 200 MILES

0 100 200 KILOMETERS

TX

OK

FL

AL GA

AR

LA

MS

GULF OF MEXICO

Map area MEXICO

LOUISIANA

FLORIDA

EAST

TEXAS

BASIN

WESTERN

GULF

EXPLANATION

Province boundary and identifier

Haynesville Western Shelf Carbonate Gas and Oil AU

Haynesville Shale Continuous Gas AU

Haynesville Shale Peripheral Continuous Gas AU

Haynesville Eastern Shelf Sandstone and Carbonate Oil and Gas AU

Introduction

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) assessed 

undiscovered, technically recoverable oil, gas, and 

natural gas liquids in the Upper Jurassic Haynesville 

Formation and stratigraphically equivalent units in the 

Gulf Coast from south Texas to the Florida Panhandle 

(fig. 1). The Haynesville Formation is part of the Upper 

Jurassic–Cretaceous–Tertiary Composite Total Petroleum System (TPS) in onshore lands and State waters 

of the U.S. Gulf Coast region. Strata in each assessment 

unit (AU) within a TPS share similar stratigraphic, 

structural, and petroleum-charge histories.

Geologic Models for Assessment

Mudstones within the Upper Jurassic Smackover 

and Haynesville Formations are sources of oil and gas 

in both conventional (Montgomery, 1993a, 1993b; 

Mancini and others, 2006) and continuous reservoirs 

(Hammes and others, 2011; Cicero and Steinhoff, 2013) 

throughout much of the assessment area. The conventional carbonate reservoirs of the Haynesville Formation 

in the western Gulf consist of lithofacies associated with 

deposition on a shallow marine shelf and include grainstone shoals/bars and local pinnacle reefs (Montgomery, 

1993a). Conventional sandstone reservoirs in the eastern 

Gulf include lithofacies deposited in fluviodeltaic, 

marginal marine and marine shelf, slope, and basin floor 

settings (Montgomery, 1993b). Continuous mudstone 

reservoirs of the Haynesville Formation are interbedded 

with and (or) basinward of the Haynesville Formation 

carbonates (including the time equivalent Gilmer Limestone and Cotton Valley lime).

Assessment Units

Four Haynesville Formation AUs were assessed 

(fig. 1). In some locations, the conventional oil and 

gas AUs overlap with the continuous gas AUs. Table 1 

lists input data used to calculate volumes of undiscovered resources in the four AUs.

The Haynesville Western Shelf Carbonate Gas 

and Oil AU is bounded on the north and west by fault 

systems and shallow-marine carbonates and reefs 

that extend basinward to the depositional shelf-break 

(Salvador, 1991; Hammes and others, 2011; Cicero and 

Steinhoff, 2013).

The Haynesville Eastern Shelf Sandstone and Carbonate Oil and Gas AU 

is bounded on the east and north by fault systems and lithofacies that extend 

basinward to the continental shelf-break and beyond (Salvador, 1991; Cicero 

and Steinhoff, 2013). Reservoirs are transitional from fluviodeltaic and paralic 

deposits in the northeast (Montgomery, 1993b) to marine deposits basinward 

on the shelf, slope, and basin floor (Cicero and Steinhoff, 2013).

The Haynesville Shale Continuous Gas AU is defined by mudstone in the 

greater Sabine uplift area where restricted marine circulation allowed the accumulation and preservation of organic-rich mudstone (Hammes and others, 2011). 

The southern boundary of the mudstone is at the continental shelf-break (Cicero 

and Steinhoff, 2013).

The Haynesville Shale Peripheral Continuous Gas AU, present in two 

separate parts of the study area, is defined by lithofacies peripheral to the 

Haynesville Shale Continuous Gas AU (Salvador, 1991; Hammes and others, 

2011; Cicero and Steinhoff, 2013). The southern limit of the Haynesville Shale 

Peripheral Continuous Gas AU is defined by the continental shelf-slope break.
ISSN 2327-6916 (print) ISSN 2327-6932 (online) https://doi.org/10.3133/fs20173016

Table 1. Key assessment input data for two conventional and two continuous assessment units (AUs) in the Haynesville Formation of Alabama, 

Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.

[AU, assessment unit; %, percent; EUR, estimated ultimate recovery per well; MMBO, million barrels of oil; BCFG, billion cubic feet of gas. The average EUR input is the 

minimum, median, maximum, and calculated mean. Shading indicates not applicable]

For More Information

Assessment results are available at the USGS Energy Resources Program website at http://energy.usgs.gov.

Haynesville Formation Assessment Team

Stanley T. Paxton, Janet K. Pitman, Scott A. Kinney, Nicholas J. Gianoutsos, Ofori N. Pearson, Katherine J. Whidden, Russell F. Dubiel, Christopher 

J. Schenk, Lauri A. Burke, Timothy R. Klett, Heidi M. Leathers-Miller, Tracey J. Mercier, Seth S. Haines, Brian A. Varela, Phuong A. Le, Thomas M. Finn, 

Stephanie B. Gaswirth, Sarah J. Hawkins, Kristen R. Marra, and Marilyn E. Tennyson

Undiscovered Resources Summary

The USGS assessed undiscovered, technically recoverable resources for two conventional oil and gas AUs and two continuous AUs 

in the Haynesville Formation. The estimated mean totals for oil and gas resources are 1,103 million barrels of oil (MMBO), or 1.1 billion 

barrels of oil, with an F95–F5 range from 286 to 2,508 MMBO; 195,797 billion cubic feet of gas (BCFG), or 195.8 trillion cubic feet of 

gas, with an F95–F5 range from 96,267 to 340,963 BCFG; and 866 million barrels of natural gas liquids (MMBNGL) with an F95–F5 

range from 304 to 1,747 MMBNGL (table 2). 

Table 2. Assessment results for two conventional and two continuous assessment units (AUs) in the Haynesville Formation of Alabama, 

Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.

[MMBO, million barrels of oil; BCFG, billion cubic feet of gas; NGL, natural gas liquids; MMBNGL, million barrels of natural gas liquids. Results shown are fully risked 

estimates. For gas accumulations, all liquids are included under the natural gas liquids category. F95 represents a 95-percent chance of at least the amount tabulated; other 

fractiles are defined similarly. Fractiles are additive under the assumption of perfect positive correlation. Shading indicates not applicable]

Total petroleum system and

assessment units (AUs)

AU

probability

Accumulation 

type

Total undiscovered resources

Oil (MMBO) Gas (BCFG) NGL (MMBNGL)

F95 F50 F5 Mean F95 F50 F5 Mean F95 F50 F5 Mean

Upper Jurassic–Cretaceous–Tertiary Composite Total Petroleum System

Haynesville Western Shelf Carbonate

 Gas and Oil AU 1.0 Oil 2 5 10 5 3 7 15 7 0 1 2 1Gas 275 573 1,102 616 2 5 11 6

Haynesville Eastern Shelf Sandstone

 and Carbonate Oil and Gas AU 1.0 Oil 284 927 2,498 1,098 378 1,261 3,648 1,535 39 129 375 157Gas 6,915 17,364 37,109 19,033 61 159 357 178

Total conventional resources 286 932 2,508 1,103 7,571 19,205 41,874 21,191 102 294 745 342

Haynesville Shale Continuous Gas AU 1.0 Gas 78,970 124,335 198,614 129,663 176 366 678 389

Haynesville Shale Peripheral

 Continuous Gas AU 1.0 Gas 9,726 38,906 100,475 44,943 26 111 324 135

Total continuous resources 88,696 163,241 299,089 174,606 202 477 1,002 524

Total undiscovered resources 286 932 2,508 1,103 96,267 182,446 340,963 195,797 304 771 1,747 866

References Cited

Cicero, A.D., and Steinhoff, Ingo, 2013, Sequence stratigraphy and depositional environments of the Haynesville and Bossier shales, east Texas and 

north Louisiana, chap. 3 of Hammes, Ursula, and Gale, Julia, eds., Geology of the Haynesville gas shale in east Texas and west Louisiana, U.S.A.: 

American Association of Petroleum Geologists Memoir 105, p. 25–46.

Hammes, Ursula, Hamlin, H.S., and Ewing, T.E., 2011, Geologic analysis 

of the Upper Jurassic Haynesville shale in east Texas and west Louisiana: 

American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, v. 95, no. 10, 

p. 1643–1666.

Mancini, E.A., Peng, Li, Goddard, D.A., and Zimmerman, R.K., 2006, 

Petroleum source rocks of the onshore interior salt basins, north central

 and northeastern Gulf of Mexico: Gulf Coast Association of Geologic 

Societies Transactions, v. 55, p. 486–504.

Montgomery, Scott, 1993a, Cotton Valley lime of east Texas—New 

pinnacle reef play in the Late Jurassic: Petroleum Frontiers, v. 10, 

no. 2, 55 p.

Montgomery, Scott, 1993b, Haynesville of southern Alabama—A new 

Jurassic play in the eastern Gulf: Petroleum Frontiers, v. 10, no. 1, 

65 p.

Salvador, Amos, 1991, Triassic-Jurassic, in Salvador, Amos, ed., 

The Gulf of Mexico basin, part of The geology of North America: 

Boulder, Colo., The Geological Society of America, v. J, p. 131–180.

Assessment input data Haynesville Western Shelf Carbonate Gas and Oil AU Haynesville Eastern Shelf Sandstone and Carbonate Oil and Gas AU

Minimum Median Maximum Calculated mean Minimum Median Maximum Calculated mean

Number of oil fields 0 4 10 4.2 1 75 250 80.7

Number of gas fields 1 50 150 53.2 1 150 500 161.5

Sizes of oil fields (MMBO) 0.5 1.0 10 1.3 0.5 1.5 1,600 13.6

Sizes of gas fields (BCFG) 3 6 300 11.6 3 18 10,000 118.1

AU probability 1.0 1.0

Assessment input data Haynesville Shale Continuous Gas AU Haynesville Shale Peripheral Continuous Gas AU

Minimum Mode Maximum Calculated mean Minimum Mode Maximum Calculated mean

Potential production area of AU (acres) 4,017,000 5,565,000 10,779,000 6,787,000 10,000 5,116,000 14,034,000 6,386,667

Average drainage area of wells (acres) 80 100 140 107 60 100 180 113

Success ratio (%) 50 70 90 70 10 50 90 50

Average EUR (BCFG) 2.0 3.0 5.0 3.093 0.5 1.5 3.0 1.562

AU probability 1.0 1.0