Shreveport Gets Gas From Haynesville Shale

Apparently Shreveport is looking at Fort Worth for answers to how to handle all the little problems that crop up when you start drilling for gas in an urban zone.

The Shreveport area shale is called the Haynesville Shale. I assume Haynesville is a town. I guess I think it's a town due to that 'ville' at the end of the name. I've no idea why the shale underneath me is called Barnett.

I discovered today what seemed to me to be sort of odd verbiage used to describe these shale operations. I first read it in the Star-Telegram and assumed it was just more of their patented goofiness. But then I read it elsewhere.

Here are some examples...

"Where is the Haynesville Shale? It sprawls across northwest Louisiana, covering the Shreveport area. A small slice of Northwest Texas is also in play."

In play?

And then, "In March, Chesapeake and another company announced that it could rival or exceed North Texas' Barnett Shale, the nation's hottest play."

Hottest play?

Another example, "The Haynesville Shale natural gas play has Shreveport residents scrambling to learn the ins and outs of mineral rights."

This use of the word "play" must be oil country lingo with which I am not familiar.