EOG Resources remains largest acreage holder
The Eagle Ford play extends across the Western Gulf Coast Basin from the Mexican border to eastern Texas, before disappearing in the Woodbine area and reappearing in Louisiana. Moving southeast from its outcrop in Uvalde County, TX, the formation deepens from 4,000 ft in Zavala County to 14,000 ft at the borders of Webb and Duval counties. The source rock exhibits three distinct windows for oil, condensate, and dry gas, corresponding to the shallow, intermediate, and deep part of the play, respectively.
According to the Texas Railroad Commission (RRC), there were 40 and 72 producing oil leases in 2009 and 2010, respectively. That number increased dramatically to 368 producing oil leases in 2011 and 1,262 in 2012. In 2013, the number rose to 2,521. Similarly, 67 and 158 producing gas wells in 2009 and 2010 grew to 550 and 875 producing gas wells in 2011 and 2012, and 2,418 in 2013. The number of issued drilling permits rose from 26 in 2008, to 94 in 2009, to 1,010 in 2010 and almost tripled in 2011 to 2,826 permits. In 2012 and 2013, 4,143 and 4,416 drilling permits were issued, respectively.
Figure 1 depicts the acreage position for the top 10 landholders in the Eagle Ford Shale. EOG Resources is the largest acreage holder in the play with 632,000 net acres, followed by Chesapeake with 449,000 net acres. Sanchez Energy is now among the top acreage holders, having acquired 106,000 net acres from Shell in May 2014.
Figure 2 shows the net production for the five largest companies in Eagle Ford, split between the hydrocarbon content. The production is given both for the reported 2013 and the estimated 2014 values. In addition to being the largest acreage holder in the play, EOG is the largest producer in the Eagle Ford. The company's 2014 production rate is expected to grow to 220 kboe/d-up 60 kboe/d from 2013. In total, the Eagle Ford is expected to produce approximately 2.3 million boe in 2014 (55% light oil), compared to 1.7 million boe in 2013.
The 30-day average production rate for the 10 largest Eagle Ford counties, as well as the split between light oil and rich gas, are shown in Figure 3. The values are based on wells started up from 2012 until the first quarter of 2014. De Witt, Karnes, and Gonzales counties-all situated in the condensate/oil window-are showing the best well results.
