Oct. 23--Chesapeake Energy Corp. said Thursday that its gross operated daily production in the Barnett Shale recently exceeded 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, including a "monster" well in Mansfield that peaked at 16.4 million cubic feet per day.

Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake, which has a large regional operation based in Fort Worth, is the second-largest gas producer in the Barnett Shale, which underlies about 20 North Texas counties. The biggest production and heaviest drilling activity is in Tarrant and Johnson counties.

Chesapeake said the Mansfield well, off Debbie Lane and west of Texas 360, "is expected to average more than 13 million cubic feet per day in its first month." That would exceed "the previous monthly Barnett production record established by two Chesapeake-operated wells this [past] summer that averaged more than 9 million cubic feet per day," the company said.

The company's gross operated daily production from four major shale-gas plays -- the Barnett, Haynesville, Fayetteville and Marcellus shales -- cumulatively exceeds more than 2 billion cubic feet per day, Chesapeake said. That includes the billion-plus in the Barnett; more than 500 million cubic feet a day in the Haynesville, in northwest Louisiana and East Texas; more than 400 million cubic feet a day in the Fayetteville, in Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma; and more than 100 million cubic feet a day in the Marcellus, which is in the Appalachian region of the Eastern U.S.

Gross operated production refers to total output from wells that Chesapeake operates and in which it has an ownership stake.Chesapeake said it is now "the largest leasehold owner, largest producer and most active driller of new wells" in the Haynesville, where it operates about 125 producing wells. Its joint-venture partner, Houston-based Plains Exploration & Production Co., has a 20 percent stake in that production.

Chesapeake cited two of its large Haynesville wells in Louisiana's Caddo Parish, with one achieving a peak production of 20.2 million cubic feet a day and the other reaching 18.6 million cubic feet a day.

While many Haynesville wells have had substantially higher initial production rates than Barnett wells, it is considerably more costly to drill in the Haynesville, which requires deeper drilling under higher pressure.

Chesapeake said it has approximately 450 producing wells in the Fayetteville, where BP America is a partner with a 25 percent stake, and about 60 wells in the Marcellus, where StatoilHydro is a partner with a 32.5 percent stake.

Chesapeake's shares (ticker: CHK) closed Thursday at $27.94, down 89 cents.

JACK Z. SMITH, 817-390-7724

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