Goodrich Petroleum shares rise on Louisiana natgas find

By Sharangdhar Limaye

BANGALORE, March 25 (Reuters) - Shares of oil and gas explorer Goodrich Petroleum Corp (GDP.N: Quote, Profile, Research) jumped 20 percent Tuesday, a day after Chesapeake Energy Corp (CHK.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said Louisiana's Haynesville Shale, in which Goodrich owns a large area, may hold as much as 20 trillion cubic feet equivalent of potential reserves of natural gas.

"They (Goodrich) have direct exposure to that new Haynesville gas play that Chesapeake announced yesterday. Goodrich has about 28,000 net acres in that area," Capital One Southcoast analyst Richard Tullis said.

In a conference call with investors, Chesapeake Chief Executive Officer Aubrey McClendon pegged potential reserves at the Haynesville Shale in Louisiana in a range of 7.5 trillion cubic feet equivalent (Tcfe) to 20 Tcfe.

"The bottomline is Goodrich, being a small-cap, should benefit from this very high growth potential," Tullis said.

Earlier in March, Goodrich had said it had taken one of its wells to a part of Haynesville, and that electric and mud log results there were encouraging.

Shares of Goodrich rose to a high of $27.50, before falling back to trade up $3.55 at $26.43 in morning trade on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Sharangdhar Limaye in Bangalore; Editing by Pratish Narayanan)