Source: Rosetta Resources.

EOG Resources has already made a request to the Texas Railroad Commission for 80 acre spacing in the Eagleville field. If that was applied to the 550,000 acres they hold in the oil and condensate windows we could ultimately see 6,875 wells drilled by EOG alone.

Number Of Ultimate Eagle Ford Shale Wells Grossly Underestimated

In a study of the economic impact of the Eagle Ford shale published in Feb, 2011 by the University Of Texas At San Antonio’s Institute For Economic Development, it was estimated that 4,890 wells would be drilled in the Eagle Ford shale between 2010 and 2020. The study estimated that 305 oil wells and 102 gas wells would be drilled in 2011. If we are to believe company reports, EOG Resources alone plans to drill 250 wells this year, Hess (25), Petrohawk (85), Rosetta Resources (25), ConocoPhillips (150), Chesapeake (undisclosed but probably around (200) with 17 rigs running), SM Energy (70), Murphy Oil (29). That’s an estimated 834 Eagle Ford shale wells to be drilled in 2011, and that doesn’t include Marathon Oil, Apache and a half dozen other companies who are active in the play. The UTSA study has vastly underestimated the number of Eagle Ford shale wells which will be drilled due to a simple mathematical error. The study based the number of future Eagle Ford shale wells on  the following calculation:

Ln(Drilling)=1.61+E*Ln(HenryHubprice). E= Price Elasticity Of Drilling = 1.

(Don’t ask me how the formula works. I’m just reprinting it here from the published study.)

The study used the Henry Hub price of natural gas as the basis of drilling activity. The Eagle Ford shale is now an oil play, with natural gas drilling in the dry gas window only being done to hold leases. The formula may apply to the dry gas window, but definitely not to the rest of the play. Wells in the volatile oil window have proven to be far more productive than was imagined even a few months ago.

Had the study been based on the price of oil instead of natural gas, it might have been more accurate. Rather than 305 wells we should see somewhere around 1000 new Eagle Ford shale oil and gas wells drilled in 2011.

How Much Oil Will The Eagle Ford Shale Produce?

Another thing that the UTSA study severely underestimated was Eagle Ford shale oil production.  Bentek, an energy consulting firm, reported in August of 2011 that Eagle Ford output had more than doubled in the last two months to 160,000 barrels per day and was on track to grow fivefold by 2015. The current rate of production would equal 58 million barrels a year. Five times that, what Bentek forecasts for five years down the line, would be 292 million barrels of oil a year from the Eagle Ford shale. That’s quite a bit more than the 8.7 million barrels the UTSA’s study forecast for 2011, and about 242 million barrels more than what it predicted for 2015. As each month goes by, Eagle Ford shale production figures continue to blow all of the previous forecasts out of the water. Just wait until the network of pipelines currently being constructed in the Eagle Ford shale area is completed and see what happens to daily production figures! Takeaway ability is currently hampering production and some wells are on restrictive chokes waiting for pipelines to be ready.

The Texas Railroad Commission has already issued 2,301 permits for Eagle Ford shale wells (as of August 1, 2011.) Where this play goes from 2011 is going to be mind boggling. The price of oil doesn’t appear to be going lower in the long term due to demand by China and the rest of the developing world. By the end of it all, a wide swath of South Texas’s underground landscape is going to look like the illustration of the Gates Ranch above.

Article By Nolan Hart

EOG’s expected EUR (estimated ultimate recovery) from wells in the western part of the play is approximately 430,000 barrels per well. In the eastern part of the play the approximate EUR of EOG Resources wells is estimated to be 460,000 barrels. ATROR or “after tax rate of return” for EOG’s Eagle Ford shale wells is approximately 95% to 140%.

EOG Resources expects to reduce well costs in 2012 by one million dollars per well by using self – sourced frac jobs. The EOG Resources Frac Sand & Resin Sand Enhancement Plant is under construction near Victoria, TX.

So far EOG has had a 100% successful completion history across more than 120 miles of the Eagle Ford shale. 96 net wells were drilled in 2010 and approximately 250 will be drilled in 2011.  When a new 70,000 barrel per day rail unloading terminal in St. James Louisiana is completed  in the first quarter of 2012, EOG Resources will begin selling Eagle Ford shale crude at something between higher LLS (Light Louisiana Sweet) crude prices, and  West Texas Intermediate (WTI). In addition, an approximate $4 to $5 cost savings is achieved by shipping by rail vs. by truck.

Below is a synopsis of EOG’s acreage holding in the Eagle Ford shale. (Image is link to investor presentation).

Eagle Ford Shale Oil Potential Greater Than Bakken Shale

The Bakken shale in North Dakota, which thus far was considered the largest new oil discovery in the United States, at around 5 billion barrels of recoverable oil, may pale in comparison to the Eagle Ford shale.

EOG Resources  has estimated their own Eagle Ford shale holdings at 900 MMBoe*  (nine hundred million barrels of oil equivalent)  in the roughly 550,000 acres they hold in the oil and “wet gas” windows.  “This figure, stated in “barrels of oil equivalent”, consists of an estimated 690 million barrels of oil, 100 million barrels of natural gas liquids, and 661 Bcf of natural gas.  That’s “net after royalty” meaning you can add about 20-25% more to that figure for another 180 MMBoe  of recoverable hydrocarbons.  There, in just a fraction of the Eagle Ford shale you get over one billion barrels of oil equivalent, most of it liquids.  McMullen county alone is comprised of 712,320 acres. Much of that county lies in the oil and “wet gas” windows.

Petrohawk Energy has reported that in the 360,000 acres they hold, 225,000 are in the oil and  wet gas windows of the Eagle Ford shale, and have the potential to produce 340 million barrels.  That’s 1,511 barrels per acre of liquids for Petrohawk Energy and 1,782 barrels per acre (net after royalty) for EOG Resources.  Let’s just take a look at the map below and do a very rough estimate.

Map from EOG Resources

Take LaSalle county for example, (where the Hoff #4H is located above), which consists of 956,800 acres. Of that, roughly half is in the oil window, and the other in the wet gas window. EOG Resources recently drilled a series of delineation wells, as seen above, and has estimated that the potential of oil and gas production over a 120 mile swath of South Texas is fairly consistent.

Just for fun, if you take an area of roughly three LaSalle counties in the oil and condensate window of the Eagle Ford shale, or 2,870,400 acres, and multiply that number by the average barrels per acre that has been proposed by EOG and Petrohawk, or 1,646 barrels of recoverable crude (net after royalty), per acre, and multiply that by 2,870,400, you get 4,724,678,400 barrels of oil.   That’s about 4.7 billion barrels, or roughly as much oil as remains in Alaska.  Pioneer Natural Resources believes the Eagle Ford shale contains as much as 25 billion barrels of  recoverable crude and natural gas liquids. This is much higher than the amount estimated by the D.O.E. and others, which is around 3.35 billion barrels. FBR Capital, a financial research firm, reported in August of 2011 that “worst case” the Eagle Ford shale holds 7 billion barrels of oil. On the high side FBR estimates it holds as much as 20 billion barrels. These numbers could be revised upwards as new drilling and production methods are developed.

Now look at the chart below, showing remaining U.S. reserves.

Update: At the recent Developing Unconventional Gas (DUG) Eagle Ford conference in San Antonio, Pioneer Natural Resources offered a presentation that suggested that the Eagle Ford shale contained as much as 150 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas and 25 billion barrels of recoverable liquids including crude oil and condensate.  Referring to the economic impact of the Eagle Ford shale on South Texas, Pioneer Natural Resources CEO Scott Sheffield added the following comment.   “When you have a 25 billion barrel play in south Texas, just the amount from severance taxes on oil and condensate and NGLs – the amount of ad valorem taxes that goes into hospitals and schools – that’s a tremendous boon to the economy of south Texas,”

Right now, according to these  estimates, there is more oil in the Eagle Ford shale as exists in all of Alaska. There’s more than in the federally controlled offshore areas, California and the Permian Basin. On the high side, there is possibly more oil in South Texas than in ALL of the conventional oilfields shown in the graph above!   FBR Capital estimates the Eagle Ford shale is the largest discovery of natural gas ever found in Texas, at around 200 trillion cubic feet, which would supply the United States needs for over ten years. Are you like me and are wondering why this huge discovery is not front page news across the nation?

* BOE or barrels of oil equivalent assumes that one 42 gallon barrel of oil is equivalent to 5,800 cubic feet of natural gas. The term BOE is used liberally by companies with acreage in areas of the Eagle Ford shale which contain more oil than natural gas. Most companies with liquids rich holdings will break their estimated reserves down into oil, NGL’s and gas for investor presentations.

Update: Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better in terms of new oil discoveries in the United States, along comes a potential 25 billion barrel discovery in Ohio. See Utica Shale

Article by EagleFordShaleBlog.com author Nolan Hart, August 12, 2010

How Most Oil Reservoirs Occur

Basically, ( and I am generalizing a lot here),  layers of sedimentary rock are usually laid down in horizontal sections, over the course of millions of years. In South Texas, the Eagle Ford shale, though “only” 165 to 65 million years old, is one of the older rock formations bearing oil and gas. It lies beneath many younger rock formations which also bear oil and gas such as the Wilcox group.  Only through geologic disturbances, such as faulting, salt domes intruding by forcing their way upward,  tilting of rock formations, ancient river channels, reefs, etc, does the order and evenness of how sedimentary rocks are laid down get messed up.

Oil and Gas Traps

When this even layering of sedimentary rock gets messed up,  it often forms an oil and gas “trap” in porous rocks such as sandstone and limestone. Denser rock layers such as shale, chert, etc, prevent the oil from migrating upward any farther.  Oil and gas that has “cooked off” of organic rich shales underneath, fills up these traps. It’s not dinosaur bones that made the oil we use, it is the remains of trillions of dead plankton, algae, land based organic matter, and ocean creatures that once formed the very same kind of muck you wade through while fishing in Baffin Bay, or which is being deposited right now deep offshore of the Mississippi delta from sediment.

Through that method of “cooking off” of shale, and “trapping” in porous rocks above, do we get most of the oil reserves in the world. Shale oil plays, such as the Eagle Ford shale, are going directly to the source or the “mother rock”, where this oil  and gas in the traps above came from in the first place.

Below is an illustration of the types of typical oil and gas “traps” that exist. This image is from the University of Wisconsin.

What will happen, (and is already happening to a degree), is that there will be many new oil and gas discoveries made as a result of drilling down to the Eagle Ford shale, which is among the deeper geologic formations in South Texas. Already there have been either “shows” (potentially productive zones found as drilling occurs ), or actual production brought online from the Olmos, Frio, Vicksburg and other zones as a result of wells drilled into the Eagle Ford shale. These productive zones can eventually be perforated as Eagle Ford shale production declines, or simultaneously, to produce oil and gas in conjunction to that from the shale. The area where interest in the Eagle Ford shale is most intense right now also contains over a dozen geologic formations known to hold oil and gas. Years ago, many wells were drilled into the Austin Chalk, Olmos, Frio, Wilcox, Edwards limestone, Vicksburg and other formations. Aside from the Austin chalk boom, most of these wells took advantage of oil and gas trapped in one of the types of traps seen above. These are often tiny pockets of petroleum, in relation to the size of the entire geologic formation, such as the Wilcox group.  Because shale formations are more uniform, oil and gas companies are not looking for “traps” per se. They are looking for the areas of the shale that have thickness, high organic content, greater permeability, (oil vs. natural gas right now), etc.

As hundreds at first, then thousands of Eagle Ford shale wells are drilled, many new finds will occur.

No Comprehensive 3D Seismic Survey Of South Texas Done Until Now

One reason that much “conventional” oil and gas remains to be discovered in South Texas is that a full, comprehensive seismic survey using modern technology referred to as “3D Seismic”, has never really been done. Primarily oil and gas companies have done these surveys on a hit and miss basis, in areas identified to have the most oil and gas traps. Along the Sligo and Stuart City trend, there have been more of these type seismic surveys. Now all of that is changing. EOG Resources, Pioneer Resources, and other companies, have completed the largest 3D seismic survey ever done of the areas of South and Southwest Texas where the Eagle Ford shale is present.

The Risk Of Exploratory Drilling In The Eagle Ford Shale

The entire nation has recently seen what destruction an oil and gas blowout can do after what happened to the B.P. well in the Gulf of Mexico. There is little damage to be done from oil spills in the Eagle Ford shale, since blowouts in South Texas have been historically of the natural gas variety, but loss of life and property must be avoided by proper safety measures and due diligence. A oil company  may have years ago relieved the pressure of oil and gas in a trap, just across the fence, but a new well drilled a mile away may still puncture a pressurized zone.  South Texas is no place to be complacent in either an exploration company’s mud program, correlation well studies, mudlogging, mud weight monitoring, etc.

This is what you don't want to seen happen. Photo by C. Keevert. More blowout photos can be seen by clicking on this image.

Any time you drill down to one of the deepest rock formations in an area that is historically known for having high underground pressures, you  face the risk of a kick or worse, a blowout. There are still many pockets of high pressure that have not been relieved through drilling.  Over the years South Texas has seen blowouts of the magnitude that Red Adair used to deal with. Entire highways, such as US 281, were re-routed during the construction phase, as huge gas wells burned out of control for months. Many older South Texas residents can recall seeing the glow from one of these massive South Texas blowouts burning at night.  That particular blowout occurred near Rachal Texas, south of Alice, TX.  The chance of major blowouts is much less these days, with better BOP’s, mud programs, info from correlation wells, etc, but there is still a  risk. Unlike the Barnett Shale, where blowouts and high pressure are a remote possibility, drilling for oil and gas, especially in the deeper fringes of the Eagle Ford shale to the south, will be subject to an element of that risk. What kind of new production will result as a consequence of Eagle Ford shale drilling? Only time will tell, but it’s going to be very interesting, to say the least.

Article by Nolan Hart, August 9, 2010.

images  from http://www.conocophillips.com

In the lower part of the slide below you see Conoco Phillip’s 240,000 acres in the Eagle Ford shale. It is the “significant shale position” that was acquired at “low cost”.

Conoco is only one of the majors that are entrenched in the Eagle Ford shale oil window. EOG, BP, Exxon Mobil, Shell Oil and others are planning major drilling programs in the fall on into 2011 and beyond. Things are heating up, and as this chart showing Conoco Phillips Eagle Ford shale investment indicates, the majors are betting big on South Texas shale oil and gas.

The lease acreage is mostly contiguous tracts, which will enable easier building of gathering pipeline networks, compressor stations, etc.  Some of this Eagle Ford shale lease area is in partnership with other oil and gas companies but will be operated by Shell.

The new Eagle Ford shale lease acreage will help boost Shell Oil’s share of North American oil and gas production which is now up to 7.8%.

As the oil spill and Deepwater Horizon tragedy has led to a moratorium on Gulf of Mexico drilling we are already seeing more money and resources being focused on the Eagle Ford shale instead of offshore projects. BP, in partnership with Lewis Energy group, now has a fifty percent interest in over 80,000 Eagle Ford shale acres. Conoco Phillips has leased over 300,000 acres.  As the offshore industry reels from drilling bans and increased regulation we will see more interest in ecologically safer areas with proven oil and gas reserves such as the Eagle Ford shale.

Shell has major positions in other North American shale plays, such as the Haynesville and Marcellus, totaling over 1.3 million acres:

Original Post:

EOG announced in a May 4th, 2010 webcast that they are planning a major oil and gas seismic survey for this summer and fall that will stretch across their 120 mile long lease area in the oil and condensate window of the Eagle Ford Shale. It was stated in the webcast that the current drilling program would be “moderated” until the results of the seismic survey in the Eagle Ford shale leasehold area was completed and fully analyzed. Investors were told not to expect any more “constant Eagle Ford news flow” until later in the year. The geophysical seismic study should take most of the summer to complete and we could possibly be seeing a very big drilling program by EOG starting in the Eagle Ford shale oil window this fall. In the past investor presentation they announced that “major production would come online in 2012″.

The only way for major Eagle Ford shale oil production to come online is for utilizing more than just six rigs, as they are presently running. Previous statements have indicated that EOG may try rotary steerable technology and multi well pads for maximum efficiency.  Current rumors in the oil patch are that they are planning a 25 rig program for this coming year.

One thing is certain and that is after paying up to $2000 or more an acre, EOG wants to hold on to much of the 505,000 acres in the oil window of the Eagle Ford shale as possible and they will have to drill quite a lot of wells in the coming three years to accomplish that, since most  of the lease terms are for that long.  Granted that many of their leases are large ranches and for many oil and gas lease contracts it only takes one well to hold the lease, but they have also leased scores of smaller parcels, down to only  a couple of acres.  The cost of losing these very small leases will not hurt them that much, and renewal offers can be made to hold them, but my guess is that EOG will start first with the larger ranches where the new Eagle Ford seismic survey data shows the best prospects and then move to drill on the smaller parcels toward the end of their three year term expiration dates. I suspect that we are talking about more than two dozen rigs running when EOG ramps up their major Eagle Ford shale drilling campaign in late 2010 and into 2011.

Oil and gas seismic survey leasing is already underway in McMullen, Dimmitt,  LaSalle, Atascosa, Karnes, DeWitt, and many other counties. If you or your neighbors have signed a lease with EOG you should be getting a call regarding permission to do an oil and gas seismic survey on your property.  For an overall picture of the entire EOG Eagle Ford shale oil and condensate window lease area, the seismic survey will be done on as many parcels as they can obtain permission for, regardless of whether they have been leased for Eagle Ford shale drilling rights or not.

What Landowners Should Consider

If you have already leased your land for Eagle Ford shale drilling I see no problem with allowing a seismic survey to take place. Here’s the dilemma facing landowners who have not already leased their property for Eagle Ford shale drilling. Should you let oil and gas companies such as EOG hire  contractors to come onto your land and use 3D seismic technology to see what is under your property for the cost of a few hundred dollars in surface damages?  This would be like allowing the person you are playing poker with peer over your shoulder and see your cards before a bet is made.   EOG could even sell the results of the seismic survey  to other oil and gas companies looking to lease Eagle Ford shale acreage that EOG has deemed unworthy.  I think it would be wise to contact an oil and gas attorney before allowing any seismic survey of your land, especially if you have not signed an Eagle Ford shale lease yet.

Nolan, May 14, 2010

See updated info above.

For those who have been wondering what EOG Resources is up to in the Eagle Ford shale, a recent press release has shed some light on their plans.

EOG Resources has so far been hush – hush about their plans for drilling in the Eagle Ford shale.  On the company website they announced several weeks ago that they were aquiring acreage but were going to keep plans for development quiet until most of the leasing had been done. Now that it has they are letting the cat out of the bag.

Now information is surfacing, such as this from an official press release, that they are planning a major drilling program in the oil window of the Eagle Ford shale with ”significant production” coming online in 2011.

EOG declared the Eagle Ford shale a ”major oil discovery“   in this April 7 press release.  CEO of EOG, Mark Papa was quoted as saying that the Eagle Ford shale was, in his words “one of the most significant United States oil discoveries in the past 40 years”.  EOG has estimated that the Eagle Ford, as an oil discovery, will rank #6 in size of all time giant oil fields in the U.S. just after the Bakken Shale. The largest would be Prudhoe Bay.

EOG hs aquired just over a half millon acres of South Texas leases across six counties.

Sixteen dileneation wells were drilled over a 120 mile trend to determine the extent of the play.

“Based on initial drilling and production results, as well as technical and core analysis, the estimated reserve potential on EOG’s 505,000 net acre position in the oil window is approximately 900 million barrels of crude oil equivalent (MMboe), net after royalty (NAR).”

(NAR refers to how much the company keeps after giving the landowner a percentage of production.)

EOG is currently operating six rigs,  drilling more wells over a large area of the Eagle Ford shale in the upper portion known as the “oil window”. Due to depressed natural gas prices, the oil rich part of the shale may be more intensley drilled than the southern gas portion.

Many Potential Well Locations

EOG has estimated that there are 2,840 potential well locations in the 505,000 it holds in the oil window of the Eagle Ford shale.  They estimate that 75% of the acreage is drillable. They are basing all estimates of production on well spacing of 125 – 140 acres per well.

EOG has stated that there is “great rock quality with high consistency” in the play, with wells 30 miles apart showing similar porosity of between 4 – 11% and permeability of 40 – 1,300 Nd.

Leasing is underway in the upper counties including Frio, Atascosa, LaSalle, McMullen, Zavala, Dimmitt, Live Oak, Wilson, DeWitt, Gonzales, Karnes, Dimmit and Webb counties.

EOG has a good track record of drilling horizontal wells in the Barnett Shale and Bakken Shale. EOG investors as well as landowners who just signed leases should be pleased with this recent news about the Eagle Ford shale oil discovery.

Update: In a May 4 EOG webcast it was stated that the current drilling program in the Eagle Ford shale would be moderated until a major 3D seismic project was completed and the results analyzed. EOG has drilled their 17th Eagle Ford shale well, the Harper 4H, which is producing 602 Bbl of oil per day and 650 Mcf of gas. “Don’t expect a constant Eagle Ford news flow from EOG until late this year” it was stated in the webcast.
EOG expects to average only 6000 Barrels per day equivalent per day of oil from the Eagle Ford in 2010 with much more production coming online in 2011. This indicates that a major drilling program will ramp up in late 2010 when the most productive areas of the acreage are identified and targeted by 3D seismic surveying.

Update:

Despite persistent rumors of a 25 rig program, Oil and Gas Journal reported the following on August 9th, 2010:

(From Oil and Gas Journal)
HOUSTON, Aug. 9 – EOG Resources Inc., Houston, will ramp up its operated rig fleet to 12 at the end of 2010 and 14 in 2011 from five at present as it better understands the South Texas Eagle Ford shale from interpreting 3D seismic along the 120-mile oil trend in which it holds 505,000 net acres.

EOG management said it is still early days in the play, but the Eagle Ford reservoir seems to be working on expansion drive toward 3-4% estimated ultimate recovery. Unresolved are determining optimum spacing, locating wells, areas that will be productive from Upper and Lower Eagle Ford or just one, and other issues.

EOG plans to drill 245 gross Eagle Ford wells in 2011 compared with 111 this year. Even so, the formation will be a large contributor to oil production growth in the second half of 2010, as EOG has drilled and completed 31 wells and has 25 awaiting completion.

Recent company Eagle Ford wells had initial production rates of 1,033, 1,002, and 625 b/d of oil plus rich gas, and the first wells in Wilson County came on at 707 b/d and 836 b/d. EOG has 100% interest in the wells.

EOG raised its 2010 capital expenditure budget by $500 million. Of that, roughly $270 million is for Eagle Ford crude oil related production and midstream facilities the company had previously planned to contract to a third party. EOG laid the change to timing and cost issues.

EOG’s exploration staff is clamoring to test the Austin chalk and Buda formations on the company’s Eagle Ford acreage, said Mark Papa, chairman and chief executive officer. Papa said EOG also sees South Texas production contributions from the Frio and Vicksburg formations.

Update #2:

HOUSTON, Aug 6 (Reuters) – EOG Resources Inc (EOG.N) said on Friday it plans to sell about 180,000 acres in U.S. shale plays as part of the oil and gas company’s effort to increase funds for oil exploration.

EOG will sell 117,000 acres in the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas; 51,000 acres in the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania; in 15,000 acres in the Haynesville Shale, Mark Papa, the company’s CEO, told analysts on a conference call.

“We’re so long on acreage relative to what we can logically develop in a reasonable period of time,” Papa told analysts.

There is no word yet on where the acreage EOG is selling is located but statements from Papa indicate that because EOG will be “focusing more on oil production”, the acreage will not be part of what it holds in the oil window. It would be hard for me to imagine them giving up much acreage in the lucrative oil window. It could be this is dry gas acreage farther south and west.

Companies such as EOG Resources and Petrohawk Energy have decided to focus more on liquids than on natural gas. To do this will require a lot of capital and the company has realized that it is in way over its head when it comes to drilling up Eagle Ford shale acreage, which is mostly on three year lease agreements, before those leases expire.  To exploit what they have they will need large amounts of capital, something the latest Eagle Ford shale acreage sale aims to remedy.

According to a recent  press release, dated March 22, 2010, featured on El Paso Corporation’s website, the company has brought in a high condensate producing well in LaSalle County.

The Hixon 1H is located in the “Condensate Window” of the Eagle Ford shale. Natural gas and condensate production combined  to figure the “equivalent  natural gas production”. The well was producing 7.2 MMcfe/ day, or equivalent cubic feet per day,  of high quality condensate and natural gas.

This figure was derived froom 2.8 MMcf/ day of natural gas and 721 barrels of condensate per day. Natural gas tested at 1,368 Btu per cubic foot.

Condensate was measured at 51.7 API gravity. Well depth was at a true vertical depth of 9,950 with 4,100 feet of lateral in the Eagle Ford shale payzone. A frac job was applied in 14 stages.

“We are very pleased with the drilling and completion performance of our second Eagle Ford well,” said Brent Smolik, president of El Paso Exploration & Production Company. “The Hixon 1H tested at the high end of our forecast, and it has a much higher liquids content, which further enhances our economics.

We are encouraged with the results, and we are accelerating our Eagle Ford program with the addition of a second rig, which will operate in the area where this well was drilled.” El Paso Corporation holds leases of approximately 138,000 acres in the Eagle Ford shale play area.

The Hixon 1-H is located in the northern part of their leasehold area on the 4490 acre  Hixon lease, approximately 9 miles east of Cotulla Texas.  No field name has been designated yet. It is still listed as “widlcat” on the Texas Railroad Commission’s website. The Hixon #1-H well is not located very far from the western end of Petrohawk’s Hawkville field.

How To Locate New Eagle Ford Shale Drilling Activity

If you are a landowner and curious about where drilling activity is taking place in your county there are a couple of ways to find out where new Eagle Ford shale wells are being drilled. One way is to use the GIS map  viewer to see where new Eagle Ford shale wells are being drilled. See RRC Map Viewer

Here is how to interpret what you see in the RRC GIS viewer. In the image below you can see a pentagon shaped black symbol. This is the location of the well or rig. The horizontal line emanating from it is the horizontally drilled oil or gas well. Blue dots are vertical wells, most likely not Eagle Ford shale wells. Note that you may find several laterals coming from one well pad.

Another way is to check the Texas Railroad Commission’s database for new permits in your area.

Visit: Texas RRC Permit Database

Unless you are looking for Eagle Ford shale wells by a specific operator do not fill in any of the boxes except “County”.  Choose the county where your property is located and scroll to the bottom of the page and enter in the dates of the search you want to perform.

Generally a search of about four months will pull up most of the wells that are planned and a few of them will have already been drilled.

Enter the dates in MM/DD/YYYY  Format.

Depending on the number of months you search you could come up with pages of results. The results will show both vertical and horizontal well bores. Some vertical wells may be pilot holes or test holes.

You may be able to recognize what area of the county drilling is occurring by the Lease Name. If you click on Lease Name you can see the approximate distance from the nearest town and in what direction.

Farther down you can see the  Field Name, which indicates what field, such as “Hawkville, Eagle Ford Shale” etc.

You can even see a map of the proposed well location by clicking on the Map icon next to the API number under “Surface Location Information”.

For more on how to find maps of oil and gas wells in Texas using the RRC GIS viewer see the following instructions: How To Use The Texas RRC Oil and Gas Wells Map Viewer

You may want to bookmark these pages in your favorites or bookmarks for future use. In Internet Explorer click on “Favorites” in the upper left hand corner and then “Add To Favorites”.