While weak natural gas prices have tempered activity, the economics of this deep, tight-gas play are holding up.

East Texas gas prospects, including the Bossier play, are bringing in success for numerous operators.

An elite class of operators drills ever deeper into onshore U.S. basins, spurred by the grand potential in such red-hot plays as East Texas' Deep Bossier, Oklahoma's Mountain Front and West Texas' Deep Haley.

Home to numerous gas targets, East Texas prospects are shaping up to be some of the nation's most fruitful gas-producing basins.

Popular plays range from straightforward tight-gas targets to tricky, high-temperature, high-pressure reservoirs.

In the northern Bayou State, operators are finding plenty of passed pay in old fields and using huge frac treatments to harvest tight gas resources.

Operators continue to cajole new production from East Texas, the original petroleum province of the Lone Star State.

Virtually abandoned for 15 years, Overton Field is getting some new attention through improved drilling and completion techniques and natural gas prices.

This red-hot, tight-gas-sand play in East Texas affirms that exploration in the onshore U.S. can still yield copious reserves.