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Eagle Ford Basin Data, History & Stats

This guide provides information about the Eagle Ford Basin, oil and gas data, history, top operators and other facts.

Eagle Ford Counties

Overview

Eagle Ford Basin Oil and Gas

The Eagle Ford Shale is a sedimentary rock formation deposited during the Cenomanian and Turonian ages of the Late Cretaceous over much of the modern-day state of Texas. It is of great significance due to its propensity to produce tremendous volumes of oil and natural gas. Because of its high carbonate content, it is more brittle and hence more suited for hydraulic fracturing.

In 2012, the Eagle Ford played a more than $60 billion role in the local economy of South Texas, and it supported employment for over 116,000 in its 38 county area.

Eagle Ford Basin: by the numbers

Based on capital invested is quite possibly the largest single economic development in the history of the state of Texas. “Usually, formations produce primarily oil or gas, but the Eagle Ford is rich in both.”, said USGS scientist Kate Whidden.

It is estimated that there is 8.5 billion barrels of oil in the Eagle Ford, along with 66 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 1.9 billion barrels of natural gas liquids. Due to the groundbreaking unconventional procedures employed to liberate previously unrecoverable resources, Texas has maintained its leadership position in the nation’s energy supply chain.

What is the Eagle Ford Basin?

The Eagle Ford Shale is a hydrocarbon-producing geological formation extending over 38 counties. Within the Railroad Commission of Texas Districts 1 through 6, the shale play trends across Texas from the Mexican border into East Texas, measuring around 50 miles wide by 400 miles long with an average thickness of 250 feet. In south Texas, it includes up to 70% carbonate shale; from there, it becomes shallower and the shale proportion rises as it travels to the northwest.

At a depth of between 4,000 and 12,000 feet, it is Cretaceous in age and is situated between the Austin Chalk and the Buda Lime. It is the source rock that filled the massive East Texas Field and the various Austin Chalk fields.

Eagle Ford Location

Depositional Environment on The Eagle Ford Basin

The Eagle Ford play is predominantly composed of organic matter-rich fossiliferous marine shales and marls with interbedded thin limestones.

The rocks of the Eagle Ford also include a fair number of fossils. Plesiosaurs, mosasaurs, teleost fish, and teeth from sharks and other fish are a few of the vertebrate fossils that have been discovered. Crustaceans, sea urchins, swimming crinoids, ammonites, oysters, inoceramid clams, and various gastropod shells are among the invertebrate fossils discovered in the Eagle Ford.

The Eagle Ford Basin: History, Data and Facts

The Eagle Ford Group has long been known to contain oil and gas, but it was not until 2008 that Petrohawk Energy Corporation drilled the first well in La Salle County, Texas.  

Boom and bursts of The Eagle Ford Basin

Drilling permits in the Eagle Ford Shale didn’t start to significantly rise until 2010. There were more than a thousand permits issued in 2010. By the year 2012, almost 4,000 permits had been issued.

While natural gas production has been regularly increasing since 2010, oil production has increased tremendously from little more than 100,000 barrels per day in 2011 to 600,000 barrels per day in 2013. 

The Eagle Ford boom, however, came to an end in 2015 as a result of the collapse in oil prices and a shift in drilling activity to western Texas’ Permian region. According to a survey by the research company Wood Mackenzie, Eagle Ford spending dropped from $30 billion in 2014 to $10 billion by the summer of 2016.

Even though the Eagle Ford basin has begun to recover in 2019 with oil and natural gas production of 2.5 million barrels per day, due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the number of shale rigs decreased from 95 rings on March 15th 2019 to 10 rigs on August 21st 2020 [Chart A below – Rig count], which caused a dramatic drop in overall output from 1,378 thousand barrels of oil per day in March 2020 to 915 thousand barrels per day in May 2020 [Chart B below].

Rig Count Eagle Ford
Chart A - Rig count Eagle Ford (source Baker Hughes)
Oil Production Eagle Ford
Chart B - Barrels of oil per day

Production had recovered by the end of 2020, but in February 2021 a tremendous ice storm hit Texas causing a further drop in production. However, since then, production operations in this shale have been steadily growing.

Unconventional horizontal well Daily Oil Production Eagle Ford Basin
Horizontal Well Daily Oil Production [bo/d]
Reported production of wells in the Eagle Ford Basin
Number of horizontal wells with reported production

Top 20 counties [April 2012 - April 2022]

Daily Oil Production of the top 20 counties in the Eagle Ford Basin
Horizontal Well Daily Oil Production [bo/d] of the Top 20 Counties
Ranking County State Horizontal Well Count April 2022 - Daily Production (Bo/d)
1 Karnes Texas 4.822 306.613
2 DeWitt Texas 2.32 124.286
3 La Salle (TX) Texas 3.857 96.738
4 Gonzales Texas 1.944 94.847
5 Dimmit Texas 3.788 95.604
6 McMullen Texas 2.142 60.183
7 Atascosa Texas 1.213 38.675
8 Webb Texas 2.932 39.345
9 Live Oak Texas 892 42.338
10 Burleson Texas 538 24.406
11 Lavaca Texas 386 20.436
12 Zavala Texas 433 20.385
13 Frio Texas 612 18.547
14 Washington (TX) Texas 118 18.564
15 Brazos Texas 436 11.483
16 Fayette (TX) Texas 220 7.901
17 Wilson (TX) Texas 203 6.85
18 Lee (TX) Texas 114 6.585
19 Maverick Texas 108 2.145
20 Grimes Texas 72 573

Top 50 oil operators [April 2012 - April 2022]

Horizontal Well Daily Oil Production [bo/d] of the Top 50 Operators
Ranking Operator State Horizontal Well Count April 2022 - Daily Production (Bo/d)
1 EOG Texas 3.689 193.234
2 ConocoPhillips Texas 1.601 146.717
3 Marathon Texas 2.096 100.039
4 Chesapeake Texas 2.712 84.21
5 Devon Energy Texas 1.076 43.132
6 Verdun Texas 1.182 45.155
7 Ranger Texas 876 33.707
8 Sanchez Energy Texas 2.277 36.795
9 BP Texas 631 25.474
10 Magnolia Oil & Gas Texas 343 32.352
11 Murphy Texas 949 24.405
12 Callon Texas 606 19.515
13 Validus Energy Texas 583 23.293
14 Ensign Texas 612 22.199
15 INPEX Texas 124 18.923
16 SM Energy Texas 614 19.006
17 EXCO Resources Texas 288 14.969
18 Trinity Operating Texas 392 16.529
19 Wildfire Energy Texas 313 11.016
20 Grit Oil & Gas Management Texas 159 10.599
21 Silverbow Resources Texas 478 6.361
22 Repsol Texas 561 7.287
23 Javelin Energy Partners Texas 293 5.258
24 Exxon Mobil Texas 135 4.366
25 SEA Eagle Ford Texas 238 5.807
26 Protégé Energy III Texas 131 5.287
27 Chevron Texas 364 4.521
28 Venado Texas 213 4.675
29 Rosewood Resources Texas 48 6.789
30 Recoil Resources Texas 119 5.231
31 Crimson Energy Partners IV Texas 161 3.903
32 Ironroc Texas 19 4.654
33 Cheyenne Petroleum Texas 124 2.426
34 Fasken Oil Texas 32 2.963
35 CML Exploration Texas 117 2.662
36 U.S. Energy Texas 50 2.315
37 Warwick-artemis, LLC Texas 22 2.793
38 Ageron Energy Texas 27 1.686
39 Buffco Production Texas 31 3.065
40 Apache Texas 92 2.273
41 Earthstone Energy Texas 36 1.85
42 Lime Rock Texas 14 1.452
43 Lewis Petro Properties Texas 995 2.074
44 Formentera Texas 65 1.56
45 Tidal Petroleum Texas 35 1.979
46 GeoSouthern II Texas 57 1.635
47 Matador Texas 72 2.182
48 Crescent Pass Energy Texas 52 1.235
49 Cinco Texas 29 1.124
50 Atlas Resources Texas 68 1.689

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Gas production over the last 10 years

Horizontal Well Daily Gas Production [Mcf/d]

Top 20 counties [April 2012 - April 2022]

Daily gas production of the top 20 counties in the Eagle Ford Basin
Horizontal Well Daily Gas Production [Mcf/d] of the Top 20 Counties
Ranking County State Horizontal Well Count April 2022 - Daily Production (Mcf/d)
1 Webb Texas 2.932 2,132,383
2 Karnes Texas 4.822 823.027
3 La Salle (TX) Texas 3.857 816.097
4 DeWitt Texas 2.32 637.155
5 Dimmit Texas 3.788 549.726
6 Live Oak Texas 892 234.661
7 McMullen Texas 2.142 197.444
8 Washington (TX) Texas 118 218.945
9 Gonzales Texas 1.944 149.121
10 Fayette (TX) Texas 220 76.459
11 Atascosa Texas 1.213 45.32
12 Lavaca Texas 386 44.17
13 Frio Texas 612 40.917
14 Burleson Texas 538 20.491
15 Zavala Texas 433 18.691
16 Brazos Texas 436 18.917
17 Maverick Texas 108 8.327
18 Lee (TX) Texas 114 8.701
19 Bee Texas 26 5.97
20 Grimes Texas 72 4.602

Top 50 natural gas operators [April 2012 - April 2022]

Daily gas production of the top 50 operators in the Eagle Ford Basin
Horizontal Well Daily Gas Production [Mcf/d] of the Top 50 Operators
Ranking Operator State Horizontal Well Count April 2022 - Daily Production (Mcf/d)
1 Lewis Petro Properties Texas 995 855.515
2 ConocoPhillips Texas 1.601 550.128
3 EOG Texas 3.689 601.975
4 Sanchez Energy Texas 2.277 353.018
5 Chesapeake Texas 2.712 330.024
6 Silverbow Resources Texas 478 257.007
7 SM Energy Texas 614 309.249
8 Marathon Texas 2.096 262.209
9 BP Texas 631 241.936
10 Devon Energy Texas 1.076 240.375
11 Escondido Resources Texas 137 209.351
12 Ensign Texas 612 200.969
13 Verdun Texas 1.182 138.507
14 Magnolia Oil & Gas Texas 343 159.13
15 Laredo Energy Texas 178 103.787
16 Chevron Texas 364 122.231
17 GeoSouthern II Texas 57 118.265
18 Repsol Texas 561 99.041
19 Pursuit Texas 19 113.729
20 Ranger Texas 876 85.624
21 Murphy Texas 949 52.123
22 Validus Energy Texas 583 57.798
23 Callon Texas 606 40.756
24 Exxon Mobil Texas 135 40.862
25 Fasken Oil Texas 32 40.777
26 Trinity Operating Texas 392 47.089
27 Rio Grande E&p, LLC Texas 6 39.194
28 INPEX Texas 124 37.984
29 Protégé Energy III Texas 131 41.2
30 Grit Oil & Gas Management Texas 159 38.935
31 Ramtex Energy LLC Texas 13 21.321
32 Silver Hill Texas 10 13.905
33 Comstock Texas 7 13.958
34 SEA Eagle Ford Texas 238 17.165
35 Crimson Energy Partners IV Texas 161 10.719
36 Wildfire Energy Texas 313 11.359
37 Ironroc Texas 19 14.33
38 EXCO Resources Texas 288 10.939
39 Blackbrush Texas 88 6.727
40 Apache Texas 92 12.427
41 Rosewood Resources Texas 48 13.429
42 Venado Texas 213 10.092
43 CML Exploration Texas 117 6.962
44 Javelin Energy Partners Texas 293 7.508
45 Ageron Energy Texas 27 4.747
46 Warwick-artemis, LLC Texas 22 5.269
47 Killam Oil Co., Ltd. Texas 5 21.611
48 Atlas Resources Texas 68 5.002
49 VirTex Operating Company Texas 56 4.796
50 Matador Texas 72 6.581

Upstream Oil & Gas Data​

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Getting the Eagle Ford oil & gas data you need shouldn’t be difficult. Some of the top E&P operators like Shell, BlueOx Resources and Bedrock Energy partner are already using Novi Labs to track major oil & gas trends up to well level.

  • Well header data
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  • Well permits
  • Directional survey data
  • Well spacing
  • Production forecasts
  • Vertical and horizontal wells included

 

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