"Wall Street is very interested in the Barnett Shale," said Gary Stromberg, managing director for high-yield research for Lehman Bros., who put together the tour. "It's always good to come out and see things for yourself."

Erik Vigsnes, vice president for high-yield research for Wellington Management Co. of Boston, peered over the drilling rig and into the sludge pit. "Seeing the rigs and the drilling doesn't affect your judgment that much," he said. "But it's a good chance to talk with the people at the company who can answer questions on the spot."

Now let's take all those investors out to the waste injection wells and ask them if they'd mind having them in their own backyards?

These investors are from all over the place, and they all want a *monster well*.

Those monster wells, so named by EOG Chairman Mark Papa last year, caused more heavy breathing on Wall Street and touched off a furious leasing boom into urban Fort Worth that has driven lease bonuses to $3,000 per acre and royalties as high as 27 percent.

"Everybody needs a 'monster well,' or you're really not a part of the Barnett Shale play now," said Mark Whitley, Range vice president, laughing.

I was wondering what a *monster well* is, and found this article about Johnson County.

Barnett Shale producers Devon Energy of Oklahoma City and EOG of Houston updated their operations for investors Wednesday, with Devon touting its 2,000th well in the giant gas formation and EOG unveiling what Chairman Mark Papa described as a "monster well."

"We think we have the biggest-producing well ever in Johnson County," Papa told analysts during a conference call Wednesday. He said the well, about 3 miles south of U.S. 287 near Mansfield, was drilled in September.

Papa told of two other Johnson County wells, one producing at an initial rate of 7.5 million cubic feet per day and another at 6.1 million cubic feet per day.

Johnson County has boomed as a drilling site this year, with more than 40 drilling rigs working at a time.

A report by Pickering Energy Partners of Houston issued this week described Johnson County as a "sweet spot" for the Barnett Shale that "may be superior to the original Barnett Shale drilling area north of Fort Worth in Wise and Denton counties."

EOG has nine drilling rigs working in Johnson County and one each in Parker and Erath counties.

Incidentally, a guy from one of the local gas companies came by the other day to ask about somebody that lives nearby-his company wanted to do seismic testing on the property. So it's coming closer to me.