A newly released assessment from the U.S. Geological Survey puts Louisiana at the heart of a promising energy frontier.
According to the USGS, the Hosston and Travis Peak formations—geologic layers that stretch beneath much of the Gulf Coast—could hold 35.8 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable natural gas and 28 million barrels of oil. For context, that’s roughly the amount of gas the U.S. consumes in 14 months.
A large portion of that potential lies in a band running from southeastern Texas across central Louisiana, through the Mississippi Delta, and into state waters—an area known as the Hosston-Travis Peak Shelf Continuous Gas Assessment Unit.
“USGS energy assessments typically focus on undiscovered resources—areas where science tells us there may be a resource that industry hasn’t discovered yet,” said Sarah Ryker, acting director of the USGS. “In this case, our assessment found substantial resources of gas.”
This isn’t Louisiana’s first run at energy production in the region. Since exploration began, the formations have already produced 8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 126 million barrels of oil.
Much of the remaining gas is what the industry calls “tight gas,” found deep underground in rock formations with very low permeability. Recovering it would require drilling down 8,000 to 10,000 feet and using hydraulic fracturing to get it flowing.
Christopher Schenk, a USGS geologist, noted how technology has changed the game. “The shift to horizontal drilling with fracking has revolutionized oil production,” he says, “and we’ve changed with it.”
