The New Albany Shale is a long-standing producer in the Illinois Basin. Wells in southwestern Indiana and western Kentucky have flowed gas from the formation for more than a century. The shale is Devonian in age and correlates to the Antrim Shale in Michigan and the Ohio Shale of eastern Kentucky. 

Interest in the New Albany surged in the early 1990s, after the Antrim Shale proved to be an economic target in Michigan. However, many wells from this era were disappointing, plagued by high water production and spotty and unpredictable ...