It could be a barn burner.
The discovery of a huge natural gas field stretching from Claiborne Parish through Bienville, Red River and DeSoto parishes has drillers lining up more rigs and paying top-dollar for leases.
It's called the "Haynesville Play" -- but it's no joke. The discovery could hold as much as 20 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, as big as the biggest natural gas field in Texas.
One major exploration company, Chesapeake Energy, has four rigs drilling now and is expected to increase that number to 10 by the end of the year, with more likely next year.
Centenary College economist William Christensen, who monitors the natural gas industry, called the field big -- but not the biggest thing in decades, as some in the industry have said.
But energy companies are paying landowners a lot more than usual for drilling rights. The price of some mineral leases has gone from less than $100 an acre to as much as $4,000 an acre, a state official said.
"This is a very large field," Christensen said. "There will be a lot of mineral rights owners affected by it, and that should generate quite a bit of local income."
Christensen said energy companies might go ahead and start drilling and then wait for the price of natural gas to rise before pumping it out to the consumer.
Natural gas is currently selling for about $10 per thousand cubic feet. Christensen said a rise to $13 or $14 might accelerate the situation.
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