The Haynesville Shale may yet swing a comeback—perhaps to rival the likes of Elvis, Brando or at the very least, Burt Reynolds in “Gator.”

Haynesville talk routinely spills over into A&D conversations otherwise dominated by the Permian Basin and Oklahoma Stack. And increasingly, industry experts are giving a nod to the legacy natural gas play virtually left for dead as the Marcellus Shale warped production toward the northeast.

While there’s no swooning over deals yet, the play is intriguing to some. The Haynesville has managed to push back against Henry Hub differentials. Laterals are longer and completions more comprehensive, and the play is near LNG hubs.

Bill Marko, managing director of Jefferies LLC, has said the Haynesville sparked many conversations because of the LNG trade and because of the economics. Ray Ballotta, M&A transaction services partner at Deloitte, echoed those sentiments Sept. 21, saying the Haynesville will turn some heads because of its proximity to the market.

For years, the Haynesville has “lived in the shadows of the Marcellus /Utica,” Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. (TPH) said in a Sept. 22 report.

In 2008, the Haynesville Shale generated a furor of deals. But its reign was short-lived.

The play took over the natural gas production lead among shale plays from the Barnett in early 2011. E&Ps in Louisiana and Texas that came along later used more advanced drilling techniques, more experienced drillers and expanded infrastructure.

By October 2012, it was over. The Marcellus extracted more gas by Halloween than the Haynesville had managed in the past 70 months.

But the basin is experiencing a revival as operators increase proppant and push out lateral lengths.

Productivity gains have been noticeable with leading-edge wells tracking more than 2 billion cubic feet (Bcf) /1,000 ft of lateral compared with TPH’s estimates of about 1.25 Bcf over the same distance.

Drilling and completion costs have also been reduced drastically, TPH said. However, only about 15 rigs are operating in the play.

E&Ps have made strides in recent months.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK), with its share of debt troubles, has 10 rigs operating: three in the Eagle Ford, three in the Midcontinent, one in the Utica and three in the Haynesville. That’s up from expectations for four to seven rigs in 2016, Cowen and Co. said in a Sept. 22 report.

In September, Comstock Resources Inc. (NYSE: CRK) said it successfully renegotiated debt that will save it tens of millions of dollars in debt interest payments. With its drilling program shut down, M. Jay Allison, Comstock chairman, president and CEO said in an August second-quarter earnings call that the company plans to ramp up rigs in Louisiana and Texas in the Haynesville and Bossier.

Exco Resources Inc. (NYSE: XCO), with acreage in the Eagle Ford, Marcellus and Haynesville, said in August it was running a single rig in Haynesville country.

Exco said it has improved the Haynesville into a “world-class gas play” that at $2.70 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) can generate a 25% internal rate of return. Existing midstream infrastructure has premium access to LNG terminals and other demand centers.

As with many operators, Exco has started using modern completion techniques with longer frack jobs and increased EURs.

Comstock is also staking more on its Haynesville and Bossier holdings, where it has amassed 67,000 net acres.

COO Mack D. Good said on the August conference call that Comstock’s drilling program had completed 13 wells, all of them produced at or beyond its type curve.

Comstock’s recipe for better wells was to extend the horizontal laterals of any Haynesville or Bossier well to 7,500 ft from the typical 4,500 ft.

“We then changed our completion design to less gel loading, fewer perforation clusters per stage, less distance between each cluster and more proppant,” he said. “They were extraordinary producers.”

Result: The new wells have rates of return of 49% to 79% at prices of $2.50/Mcf to $3/Mcf at current well costs.

The company’s debt exchange is intended to improve Comstock’s capital structure and give the company enough financial breathing room to redirect cash flow from interest payments to capex.

Comstock will save up to $109 million cash on interest payments in 2017, Allison said.

The company plans to restart drilling in October and add more rigs through 2017. Comstock’s capex in the second half of 2016 will total about $46 million. In 2017, spending climbs to $147 million.

“With such a program, our gas production EBITDAX would be almost double from where we are now,” Allison said.

The poster child of refurbishing the Haynesville is Chesapeake, TPH said.

“Despite having the largest acreage position in the basin, CHK had been behind the completion optimization curve by a wide margin until recently,” TPH said.

In 2015, Chesapeake lagged behind in the use of proppant in Haynesville wells, using about 1,600 pounds per foot compared to the industry norm of 3,500 pounds per foot.

On Chesapeake’s second-quarter call, the company said it was using up to 3,000 pounds of proppant per foot in completions.

Chesapeake has plans to dramatically scale up its proppant use going forward, TPH said.

TPH said that, increasingly, attention will be paid to the Haynesville, especially if prices rise between $3.25/Mcf and $3.75/Mcf in 2017.

“This could ultimately prove to be a headwind for 2018 natural gas fundamentals as HHUB levered gas growth combines with northeast debottlenecking,” the firm said.

Indeed, the Haynesville may yet be a contender again.

Darren Barbee can be reached at dbarbee@hartenergy.com.