Eagle Ford Basin | December 2022
Field Overview
A heavy shale play, the Eagle Ford basin is located east of the Permian, stretching from Dallas to San Antonio. Primarily a gas play with smaller oil plays, it boasts proven reserves of 3.37 billion bbl of oil and 2.5 TCF of gas.
State Drilling Statistics
Active Drilling Rigs in Basin- 72 (
+1)
Total Rigs in Texas- 380 (+14)
Total Rigs in United States- 771 (
-4)
Total U.S. Rigs 28% YTD
Eagle Ford Permitting Data
Permits Approved – 157
Eagle Ford Top Producer
Top Producer- EOG Resources
–
Basin Highlights
Marathon Oil Completes Eagle Ford Acquisition
Marathon Oil completed the $3 billion acquisition of the Eagle Ford assets of Ensign Natural Resources that was announced on November 2 of 2022. Marathon Oil expects to produce 67,000 boepd from the acquired assets in the next year, and they expect to drill 35-40 new wells on the acreage and to employ one rig throughout the next year on the acreage. The acreage is immediately offset of a large portion of Marathon’s existing leaseholds and the company expects to realize considerable operational synergies through this deal in the coming years.
State of Shale 2023, Eagle Ford: A Return to the Spotlight
The Eagle Ford saw a considerable increase in M&A activity in 2022 and has a bright future. The Eagle Ford realizes higher commodity prices than the Permian because of the natural gas gathering infrastructure that is more commensurate with its production and because it is closer to Gulf Coast refineries, crude export terminals, gas processing plants, arterial pipelines, and other infrastructure.With increasing demand for LNG globally and more LNG export terminals in the permitting process, the gassier Eagle Ford stands to grow considerably in importance in the coming years.
U.S. Shale Output to Keep Growing, at a Snail’s Pace – EIA
Led by the Permian Basin, all of the major shale basins across the US are expected to grow production in January 2023. The Eagle Ford shale of South Texas is expected to climb from 1.23 million bpd to 1.24 million bpd, the highest rate since April 2020. Natural gas across all American shale basins is expected to increase 535 mmcf/d to a record 96.28 bcf/d. These production increases are all expected to come almost exclusively from the drilling and completing of new wellbores–DUC inventories seems to have bottomed out, increasing by 22 in November, which was the first monthly increase since June of 2020.
Top Operators By Permit Approvals
| Rank | Company | Permits Approved |
| 1 (Tied) | EOG Resources | 20 |
| 1 (Tied) | Marathon | 20 |
| 2 (Tied) | Chesapeake | 9 |
| 2 (Tied) | Gulftex Energy | 9 |
| 2 (Tied) | Silverbow Resources | 8 |
Top Operators by Production
| Rank | Company | November Oil Production (MBO) |
| 1 | EOG Resources | 4,937 |
| 2 | ConocoPhillips | 4,403 |
| 3 | Marathon | 3,723 |
| 4 | Chesapeake | 2,520 |
| 5 | Devon Energy | 1,558 |
Rig Count
Texas Oil Production
Texas Gas Production
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PETRO Engineering, PLLC via the following sources unless otherwise
noted:
www.eia.gov
www.drillinginfo.com
www.bhge.com
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