The Barnett, Fayetteville and Haynesville shales are still seeing activity despite a broader trend of companies lowering capex budgets on falling oil prices. For example, Calgary, Alberta’s Bellatrix Exploration Ltd. (TO: BXE, NYSE MKT: BXE), and Oklahoma City-based Continental Resources Corp. (NYSE: CLR), recently cut their 2015 capex budgets. Bellatrix cut its capex to CA$300 million, down from CA$400 million, and Continental slashed 40% off its original estimate to stand at $2.7 billion.

Gary Evans, chairman and CEO of Grapevine, Texas’ Greenhunter Resources Inc. (NYSE MKT: GRH), said in the company’s Nov. 9 third quarter conference call that the Barnett, Fayetteville and Haynesville were among plays that had higher finding costs. The Marcellus and Utica “are probably the least adverse to commodity prices; in other words, if commodity prices move up or down, this area is going to stay extremely active” because those plays’ finding cost reserves are “the lowest” in the country, he added in a Seeking Alpha transcript.

Companies working in the three plays had, overall, positive summations for 2014 and mixed outlooks for 2015.

Barnett Shale

Irving, Texas-based Pioneer Natural Resources Co. (NYSE: PXD) is putting the $150 million from the sale of Barnett assets to work in the Spraberry/Wolfcamp area, chairman and CEO Scott Sheffield said in a Seeking Alpha transcript.

Meanwhile, Fort Worth, Texas-based Quicksilver Resources Inc.’s (NYSE: KWK) core area is the Barnett, and work there is “going well,” CEO Glenn Darden said in a Seeking Alpha transcript. About $29 million in capital incurred during this year’s third quarter went toward Barnett drilling and completions, added John Regan, CFO.

Atlas Resource Partners LP, a subsidiary of Pittsburgh-based Atlas Energy LP’s (NYSE: ATLS), has assets in the Barnett that are HBP. Like assets in many of the company’s other operating areas, they will be operated in during strong economic factors, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript. The foreseeable future indicates lower prices—“Our forward crude prices for 2015 have moved lower by $5 per barrel [bbl] from Oct. 13,” said CFO Sean McGrath, noting that in the first and second quarters of this year, oil prices were about $90/bbl.

Houston-based EV Energy Partners LP (NASDAQ: EVEP) is still working up its 2015 budget, but expects to run a “three-week program for most of 2015” in the Barnett, where 56 wells were drilled this year, 19 of them in the third quarter, said president and CEO Mark Houser in a Seeking Alpha transcript. He noted that the company expected to drill 80 wells by the end of 2014.

Fayetteville Shale

In the Fayetteville, Houston-based Southwestern Energy Co. (NYSE: SWN) “again had [its] best quarter in the company’s history for production volumes and had our 10th consecutive positive cash flow month,” COO Bill Way said in a Seeking Alpha transcript, referring to 2014’s third quarter.

A total of 106 wells were put online with a roughly-4.3 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) IP rate, and two of them “are in the top ten ever drilled at over 10 million a day each,” Way added. The 60-day rates, of 2.5 MMcf/d of gas, increased in 2014, and this reflected “the better wells drilled in the past quarter.”

In the Upper Fayetteville, 15 wells were put online in 2014, with a 3.4 MMcf/d average IP rate. Five additional wells were expected to be drilled there by year’s end, and they were scheduled to be completed in early 2015. “While it’s early, we estimate that the Upper Fayetteville may expand over 130,000 acres or 1,000 well locations for future development opportunities,” he noted.

Haynesville Shale

Regarding the Haynesville, Calgary-based Encana Corp.’s (NYSE: ECA, TO: ECA) refrack wells there are performing better than expected, said Mike McAllister, executive vice president and COO, in a Seeking Alpha transcript.

At Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK), “We generated double-digit quarter-over-quarter production growth in the Eagle Ford and Haynesville, Powder River Basin and Utica assets,” said CEO Doug Lawler in a Seeking Alpha transcript.

Dallas-based Exco Resources Inc.’s (NYSE: XCO) work in the Haynesville in 2014 yielded “encouraging results.” President and COO Harold Hickey said in a Seeking Alpha transcript that the drilling portion of the longer-lateral Shelby test program was wrapped up in July—three wells were drilled into the Bossier Shale and five were drilled into the Haynesville.

Of these, seven turned to sales and eight recently came online, he noted. The wells were completed under the new completions program, with increased profit per completed foot, he added. “We anticipate this program will add reserves in excess of our prior forecast” of 1 Bcf per 1,000 feet of lateral. There are plans to drill in Shelby in 2015, Hickey said.

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