Overshadowed by Permian, but Eagle Ford making its own comeback

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Houston Chronicle by  Jordan Blum Oct. 19, 2018

CALDWELL — Three years ago, Allen Startz found himself in an unwanted kinship with thousands of other oilfield workers in South Texas’ Eagle Ford shale — laid off with few prospects nearby.

He left his home in Bryan to work in the Permian Basin in West Texas, making plenty of money, but growing exhausted from the grueling 450-mile trip he made every couple of weeks to visit his family, whom he missed dearly. Today, however, he wakes up in his own bed each morning and heads to a job operating oilfield services trucks in the northeastern Eagle Ford, just 30 miles away.

“I finally get to see my kids all the time,” said Startz, 52. “This is actually the first time I’ve ever worked and gone home on the same day. I’m getting back in the swing of things being a dad.”

Startz’s vastly improved work-life balance is the result of a slow, but increasingly sure comeback of the Eagle Ford shale, which, for most of the energy industry’s two-year recovery has been overshadowed by the booming Permian. On the 10th anniversary of the first discovery in the Eagle Ford this October, drilling is more active than at any time since the collapse of crude prices in late 2014.

More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Overshadowed-by-Permian-but-Eagle-Ford-making-13319273.php

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The driver on the Eagleford now is the gas target.

Due to hydrocarbon maturities(which make kerogen into either oil or gas, dependent upon pressure and temperature), most of the Eagleford exists as gas.

Gas targets have been avoided up to recently as liquids-rich targets are where the money has been.

A lot of prime liquid areas are already under commitments and/or developments matured.

Gas utilizations are increasing so it makes sense to go after the gas targets at this time while the Permian is packed.

The Eagleford is a proven unconventional target and gas can produce at very high rates as compared to liquids rates.

The Permian is not nearly as much a proven unconventional target;  in fact, most of the drilling is in what is mostly conventional targets, albeit redrilling as horizontal wells rather than what the majority of the Permian was developed on, vertical wells.

[thackney]

Eagle Ford Region
Drilling Productivity Report
https://www.eia.gov/petroleum/drilling/pdf/eagleford.pdf