Before Petrohawk Energy drilled its first well on a Company-owned asset in the Haynesville Formation in Northwest Louisiana, exploration geologist Richard Stoneburner was asked by the CEO to find another unconventional shale resource play. Dick, his exploration team at Petrohawk, and Gregg Robertson, a consulting geologist in Corpus Christi, Texas, came up with an idea that targeted the Eagle Ford shale, an Upper Cretaceous source rock. The unit is anomalously thick, porous, and highly resistive in LaSalle and McMullen counties, Texas. After leasing, Petrohawk drilled and completed their initial Eagle Ford well in 2008 for 7.5MMCF/D and 251BC/D, discovering the Hawkville Field. This Eagle Ford reservoir has evolved into a major play that extends from the Mexican border across South Texas, northeast to Lavaca County. The producing trend is more than 250 miles in length and ranges from 25 to more than75 miles in width. Dick was awarded the AAPG Norman H. Foster Outstanding Explorer Award for this discovery.