Data, Stats, News & Info
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.
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.
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].
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.
Top 20 counties [April 2012 - April 2022]
| 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]
| 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
Top 20 counties [April 2012 - April 2022]
| 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]
| 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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- Vertical and horizontal wells included
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