While unhappiness with the White House energy agenda colored the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association meeting held today at the Windsor Court Hotel in New Orleans, industry leaders were upbeat about a slew of new shale natural gas discoveries that could pump new life into the industry.

Though low natural gas prices have slowed activity in areas such as the Haynesville Shale in northwestern Louisiana, LOGA President Don Briggs said demand for natural gas in export markets and for domestic power generation and transportation fuel will only grow.

Briggs noted horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, a technique that pumps water, sand and chemicals deep into rocks to push out natural gas and oil, continue to open new possibilities for the industry in Louisiana.

“This is a big thing for Louisiana in a lot of different ways,” Briggs said.

Industry leaders noted slow permitting for drilling offshore, the threat of tightened federal regulation on fracking and Obama administration rhetoric condemning oil and gas tax incentives remain major concerns.

But they highlighted a number of new prospects that could play a role in the future of the state’s oil and gas industry. Shale drilling activity is picking up in the Lower Smackover Brown Dense in northern Louisiana as well as the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale, also known as the Louisiana Eagle Ford, in central and south Louisiana.

In the shallow water Gulf of Mexico, companies are drilling for natural gas tens of thousands of feet below the ocean floor in areas previously thought tapped. New Orleans-based McMoRan Exploration is betting millions on ultra-deep natural gas plays.

“Plays like this could really be tremendous for us,” Briggs said.

One of the obstacles to growth is the price of natural gas, which plummeted to around $2.50 per MMBtu in January. The decrease has had an acute impact in the Haynesville Shale.

Last March, the Haynesville Shale surpassed the Barnett Shale in Texas as the top-producing natural gas play in the U.S., producing about 5.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. Still, the number of active rigs has fallen from 135 rigs in 2009 to 68 now.

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