Mar. 4--As oil and gas producers firm up their 2009 spending plans in response to lower petroleum prices, it's clear the Barnett Shale is going to be a lot less busy.

The number of drilling rigs working in the big North Texas natural gas field has fallen by more than half, from a peak of 214 in October to 97 as of Friday. And XTO executives suggest that could fall to as low as 90 in coming months.

That means fewer wells, and nowhere is that more true than at Devon Energy, which announced that it expects exploration and production spending in 2009 to be less than half what it spent in 2008. Devon had resisted cutting back its Barnett Shale activity, but it now says it will drill something over 200 wells this year, or only about a third of the more than 600 it drilled in 2008.

"Our response to the current environment is to dramatically cut our capital expenditures," Devon Chairman Larry Nichols said during the company's latest conference call with financial analysts. He said the company expects to spend between $3.5 billion and $4.1 billion, less than half its 2008 budget.

Other companies active in the field are also pulling back, albeit generally at lesser rates.

XTO Energy, which ran about 20 rigs in the Barnett for much of last year, expects to drop to 12 this year.

Chesapeake slashed its active rigs from 43 in September to 32 by year's end. It now plans to keep 20 to 25 rigs busy in 2009, said Julie Wilson, the company's top officer in the Barnett Shale.

It all comes back to price. Natural gas futures prices are hovering just above $4 per 1,000 cubic feet, down more than two-thirds from their peak in July and a le- vel not generally seen since 2002.

But as bad as that sounds, the picture for Barnett Shale producers is actually somewhat worse. The field's rapid growth, to daily production of about 5 billion cubic feet at the end of 2008, has swamped the pipeline hubs where gas is sold, driving down those local prices even more.

For example, some sales are tied to prices at the Houston Ship Channel, where natural gas was trading for $3.55 last week. In Carthage, a destination for much Barnett Shale gas, the price was $3.73. But at Waha, a far West Texas hub that some buyers are using, gas fetches just $2.82.

And then producers have to pay transportation expenses of perhaps 30 cents to 70 cents per 1,000 cubic feet, depending on the distance to those hubs.