Eagle Ford Drilling activity has greatly increased from the lows in 2020

Eagle Ford in Texas is the most mature tight oil play in the Lower 48 current, oil and natural gas production of 2.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. Measuring 400 miles long and 50 miles wide along the Texas Gulf Coast, the Eagle Ford basin is spread over 12,000 square miles in South and central Texas.

Tight oil production in the Eagle Ford has hovered at around 1.05 million b/d since the start of this year, near the lowest levels in 9 years, and came in at just above 1 million in July (there will still be some minor upward revisions). If you switch product to ‘gas’, the picture for natural gas is rather different, and that it has been increasing in the last 2 years to just over 6 Bcf/d.

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Eagle Ford Wells Drilled in 2022

Drilling activity has greatly increased from the lows in 2020, but with 78 rigs drilling horizontal wells (source: Baker Hughes) of which 73 focused on oil, activity is unchanged in the last 5 months.

So far it is clear that the wells that came online in 2021 are performing slightly better than in earlier years, but it also appears that the wells that began this year are lagging behind.

Oil production of the 4 largest producers in the basin, EOG Resources, ConocoPhillips, Marathon, and Chesapeake has steadily fallen over the years. The increase for Devon in June was driven by its acquisition of Validus Energy.

Eagle Ford Rig Map (click to access)

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