What is the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale?  The Tuscaloosa Marine Shale is an oil and natural gas field located in Southern Louisiana and extends into parts of Mississippi.  The Tuscaloosa Marine Shale has been getting a lot of attention from drilling companies lately due to It's unique characteristics.  The Tuscaloosa Marine Shale is anticipated to hold both Oil & Gas in Louisiana and Mississippi.  While still in It's infancy, expect to hear a lot more about the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale in the coming months and years ahead, especially with higher oil prices.  Some drilling operators are acquiring mineral rights because they like the Geology of the actual shale.  The Tuscaloosa Marine play is said to be rich in silica which is very brittle and can break easily.  If this is infact the case, expect the cost of drilling these wells to be fairly low and the wells to be very productive.

The Tuscaloosa Marine Shale Trend spreads over the following county or parishes

Louisiana (LA) -  Allen County, Ascension Parish,  Avoyelles County, Beauregard County, Catahoula County, Concordia County, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana Parish,  Evangeline County, Grant County, Livingston County, La Salle County, Natchitoches County, New Orleans, Pointe Coupee County, Rapides County, Sabine County, St. Helena County,  St. Landry County, St. Tammany County, Tangipahoa County,  Vernon County, West Baton Rouge, Washington County, West Feliciana Parish.

Mississippi (MS) - Adams County, Amite County, Franklin County, Pike County, Walthall County, Wilkinson County

One major oil & gas company, Encana (ECA), is very excited about the prospects of the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale. Encana sees this opportunity as a large unconventional oil- and liquids-rich natural gas resource play and had this to say in their last conference call: During the quarter, we captured additional acreage in the Tuscaloosa marine shale, bringing our total land position in this play to approximately 270,000 net acres. We completed an existing horizontal well in Amite County as part of our joint venture agreement, and we are very encouraged by the results. The well had a 30-day initial production rate of 310 barrels per day in light oil from 5 effective completion stages. This well has been on production for about 125 days, and we forecasted expected ultimate recovery of 145,000 barrels of oil. We are currently drilling the first of 2 planned horizontal wells, targeting a 7,500-foot lateral length with 30 planned completion stages and expect to begin completion activities in November 2011.  Encana expects to really ramp up the Tuscaloosa Marine Formation in 2012.