The Eagle Ford shale lies at different depths across South Texas.  The northern part of the Eagle Ford shale is becoming known as the “oil window” since it is mostly low pressure and liquid rich.  The central part of the play has been called the “condensate and gas window”, with higher pore pressures and more gas but still significant amounts of free liquids. Farther south in the more thermally mature deep Eagle Ford shale, high pressure dry gas is the general rule. The following map of Eagle Ford depth contour lines shows the shale anywhere from 2000 feet deep in southern Bexar County,to over 13,000′ farther south.  Maps from Petrohawk Energy

Second map of Eagle Ford shale depths.

Shows the depth of the Eagle Ford shale in southern Gonzales county at over 13,000′.  Both maps are from Petrohawk Energy.  In southern LaSalle county, in the dry gas window of the Eagle Ford shale, depths reach up to 15,000′.

The map below shows the thickness of the Eagle Ford shale in several key counties.

For more maps including thickness of the Eagle Ford shale see: Eagle Ford Shale maps.

                          

Getting a true picture of how much oil is contained in the Eagle Ford shale at this point is difficult. One reason that no hard numbers are out there yet is because there are simply not enough wells and production figures. As more wells come online we should start to see the bean counters come up with some better numbers. For now, I’ve got some for you, based on projections from companies like EOG Resources and Petrohawk Energy.

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 2.5 billion barrels, may pale in comparison to the Eagle Ford shale. EOG Resources for example, has estimated Eagle Ford shale reserves of 900,000,000 (nine hundred million) barrels in their roughly 505,000 acres in the oil window.  That’s “net after royalty” meaning you can add about 20-25% more to that figure for another 180,000 barrels  of recoverable oil. There, in just a fraction of the Eagle Ford shale “oil window”, you get over one billion barrels, or half of the Bakken Shale. McMullen county alone is comprised of 712,320 acres. Much of that county lies in the oil window. What is not in the oil window is in the gas and condensate window. Since condensate counts as oil, there’s a bunch more to add to the tally in that sector of the Eagle Ford shale.

Petrohawk Energy has reported that in the 360,000 acres they hold, 225,000 are in the oil and condensate window 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. And that’s only the oil window! 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 gas and condensate windows. 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 twice the size of the massive Bakken shale in North Dakota.

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

Right now, according to these very, very rough estimates, there is possibly as much or 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.  Oh, and guess what? The Eagle Ford shale is one of the largest domestic natural gas discoveries as well.  Are you like me and are wondering why the Eagle Ford shale is not front page news across the nation?

Article by eaglefordshaleblog.com author Nolan Hart, August 12, 2101

Want to discuss how the Eagle Ford shale may impact the nation by reducing foreign oil imports? Join us here: Eagle Ford Shale Discussion

                          

There will undoubtedly be many new oil and gas discoveries as a result of the Eagle Ford shale drilling frenzy. These new discoveries will be made in geologic formations above where the Eagle Ford shale lies. I’m not making a bold prediction here, it is a fact. If you take an area that already has the geology for oil and gas, including stratigraphic and structural traps, (see below), and poke a few thousand more, very deep holes through it, across a wide area, you are bound to find more production. South Texas has produced much of the nation’s domestic oil and gas over the years, starting as far back as the 1930’s.  Most of this came from traditional “traps” such as those pictured below.

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 lower geologic formations in South Texas. Already there have been either “shows” (potentially productive zones found), 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, some as deep as 15,000 feet vertical depth (then turned horizontal), many new finds will occur.

No Comprehensive 3D Seismic Survey Of South Texas

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, Pioneer Resources, and other companies, have initiated the largest 3D seismic survey ever done of the areas of South and Southwest Texas where the Eagle Ford shale is present.

There will be some amazing finds made.

The Risk Of Exploratory Drilling In The Eagle Ford Shale

Not too sound sensational here, but the entire nation has recently seen what destruction an oil and gas blowout can do. 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.  This 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.

                          

By Eaglefordshaleblog.com author Nolan Hart, July, 31, 2010

The Eagle Ford Shale Housing and Motel Room Shortage Grows

From Karnes County to Cotulla there is hardly a motel room to be found these days.  Oil company workers, landmen and others have snatched up reservations for  months into the future. As a recent story in the San Antonio Express noted, motels are full across the Eagle Ford shale oil and gas play.  Restaurants are full and even starting to raise  prices on their menus as the Eagle Ford shale “gold rush” grows.   The home and commercial property market is heating up as well.  A man I spoke to in  Tilden, Texas, said that he has had no less than ten offers in the past two months on his rental home which has frontage on highway 281.

In the Pleasanton – Jourdanton Texas area, Eagle Ford shale activity has caused a flurry of home leasing activity. No longer are properties sitting on the market for weeks. Rental rates for homes and commercial property are increasing across the board. Atascosa county’s jobless rate, as well as that of many counties in the Eagle Ford shale, is dropping.

Right now the hotbed of activity is in the “oil window”, which is in the northern part of the Eagle Ford shale play from DeWitt all the way to Maverick County. Farther south there are still gas wells being drilled but the real local impact is happening in the north.

The Eagle Ford shale has been called the “sixth largest U.S. oil discovery in history” by geologists working for EOG Resources, one of the major players. It’s only beginning to kick off.   I wrote an article titled “Economic Impact Of The Eagle Ford Shale” on my other website, energyindustryphotos.com over a year ago and predicted almost all of what is happening right now. It took twelve months for them to wake up, but the major newspapers have finally realized that something major is happening in South Texas.

Media Hype

While there are concerns that need to be addressed, such as use of valuable surface water and wells drilled into the Carrizo aquifer, the media is full of  over-hyped reports warning impending air and water pollution.  It’s no wonder that oil companies have a bad rap, just after the largest oil spill in U.S. history, but the fact is there has yet to be a confirmed report of groundwater damage in Texas due to hydraulic fracturing. It’s one of the most regulated procedures in the industry and there are literally thousands of feet of solid rock separating aquifers like the Carrizo and the Eagle Ford shale.  What many fail to appreciate is that hydraulic fracturing has been used successfully in Texas for decades. Also, oilfields tend to be smelly.  That’s just a fact.

Residents right next to a producing well who are not getting any royalties tend to file a lot of complaints, even if the odor is minor, and attribute everything from asthma to ulcers to the well next door.  We’ve seen these kind of lawsuits in the Barnett shale near Fort Worth and Dallas, where hundreds of them have been filed. Of all of those, I would venture that most were filed by folks who didn’t think the whiff of petroleum smell they got every now and then “smelled like money” since they weren’t getting anything from the well.

There are major oil and gas fields across the state of Texas and you don’t find people dropping like flies from pollution like the newspapers might suggest.  What we need to see is an objective approach to reporting the development of the Eagle Ford shale, not biased hype based on a reporter’s opinion of the industry as influenced by matters that happen elsewhere in the world . Here, in our backyard, sits billions of barrels of easily obtainable oil. There is no danger to marine creatures, no despotic foreign dictators to deal with and billions in dollars of economic benefit to United States citizens.  We’re not going to be powering our cars on solar rays anytime soon and we desperately need to keep our dollars at home rather than sending them overseas to people who often hate us.

I’m not saying to drop your guard and trust everything that oil companies do, but let’s have some objective reporting that weighs the benefits and risks of the largest domestic oil discovery in forty years.

                          

In a recent conference call to investors Conoco Phillips CEO Jim Mulva announced that the company will be investing more capital in proven plays such as the Eagle Ford shale, where they hold a position of approximately 240,000 acres. Seen below is a slide from a recent presentation showing capital expenditures on exploration. Conoco Phillips plans to spend 80% of their 2010 budget on exploration and production.  The pie chart below is for lower 48 state and Canada exploration.  You can see that the majority of Conoco’s budget is slated for Eagle Ford shale exploration. The company plans to bring 900,000 barrels of production online in 2011, part of that will be coming from the Eagle Ford shale holdings.  All one has to do is look at what a large chunk of Conoco Phillip’s exploration budget is going to the Eagle Ford shale and compare it with the tiny sliver of production to see that big gains in overall Eagle Ford shale production are coming.  Next year’s production pie chart should look a whole lot different with respect to the Eagle Ford shale.

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.

                          

Shell Oil Company, the Houston based arm of Royal Dutch Shell, has announced that it has acquired significant acreage in the liquids rich “oil window” and “condensate window” of the Eagle Ford shale. In a press release on the company website they announced that their current Eagle Ford shale lease hold area is comprised of well over 250,000 acres and building.

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:

                          

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

Update, August 9, 2010.

Oil and gas journal has reported that EOG plans to ramp up to 12 rigs toward the end  of 2010, with 14 running in 2011. They plan to drill 245 Eagle Ford shale wells, mostly in the oil and condensate window.

                          

EOG Reports Major Oil Discovery In South Texas

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.

                          

El Paso Corporation Reports Successful Eagle Ford Shale Well Near Cotulla Texas

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 you can visit the Texas Railroad Commission’s website and do an online query for the latest drilling permits.

Here is how to perform the search:

Visit http://webapps.rrc.state.tx.us/DP/initializePublicQueryAction.do

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.

Typically the horizontal wells deeper than 11,000 feet in counties such as McMullen and LaSalle will be Eagle Ford Shale wells.

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”.

You can also pull up the permitted well’s plat using the same link above. You should see latitude and longitude on the well plat. You can take this info and enter it into Mapquest here: Mapquest Latitude and Longitude Be sure to include a minus sign in front of the longitude for “West” or the map will show you a location in China.  You can use lat-lon info from Texas Railroad Commission permits to determine the exact location of any new Eagle Ford shale wells in your area.