North Louisiana

Abstract

Although shallow gas production from the Upper Cretaceous began in North Louisiana before 1890, the first commercial exploitation began with the discovery of the Caddo field in 1905. The discovery of the Monroe field in 1916 made North Louisiana one of the major gas-producing areas of the world. As technology progressed and shallow reservoirs were depleted, deeper drilling found substantial reserves of gas in Lower Cretaceous and Upper Jurassic formations. Wasteful practices from the very beginning—blowouts, “wild” wells, cratering, fires, and formation damage—led to a series of progressive legislative acts and regulations. The concepts of common carriers, unitization, proration, and controlled well spacing were developed very early, beginning in 1906, and culminated in the general Act 157 of 1940, one of the most progressive, all-purpose conservation laws in the country and the world.