MARCUS MINTON
ADAM CARD
JASON NORMAN
RYCKUR SCHUTTLER
 Description of Shale
 History of Eagle Ford Shale Play
 Current Production/Investments
 Challenges
 Future of Eagle Ford
• Formed millions of years ago from the
layering of organic material
• After exposure to high temperatures and
pressures over millions of years, the layers
of organic material lithify into oil shale
• Oil Shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of significant amounts
of kerogen- A solid mixture of chemical compounds from which liquid
hydrocarbons can be extracted
• Estimates of global deposits range from 2.8 trillion to 3.3 trillion barrels of
recoverable oil
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Named after Eagle Ford which is a small settlement between Trinity and
Arcadia Park
Occupies approximately thirty-five counties and extends from the
Mexican border, north of Laredo, roughly 50 miles wide and 400 miles
long
Bedded below the Austin Chalk and above the Buda Lime with an
average thickness of 475 feet
Ages between 65 million years and 144 million years, and was formed
during the Cretaceous Period
First well drilled on the Eagle Ford Shale was in 2008 by Petrohawk
“The Eagle Ford Shale is full of oil in most locations in the eastern group of South
Texas counties in the Austin Chalk trend. It is a fractured, brittle, often
micaceous and fossiliferous black shale with occasional recrystallized, oilcarrying dolomite streaks as much as 10-20 feet thick.”
(World Oil,” Feb. 1,
1978)
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First well drilled had a vertical depth of 11,141 feet and
diverted 3,200 feet laterally and flowed at a rate of 7.6 million
cubic feet of natural gas per day
Numerous companies now acquiring leases –Chesapeake and
Apache are the two largest with companies like Anadarko, BP,
ConocoPhillips, EOG Resources, and Shell right behind them
At least 27 companies have attained leases in the Eagle Ford
Shale
252 of the total 851 permitted wells have been completed in the
30+ fields as of October 6, 20120
Most wells are drilled to an average vertical depth of 11,000
feet and between 3,500 and 5,000 feet horizontally with at least
10 fracturing stages
Well Log from a location in the
Eagle Ford Shale
Shallow, Medium and Deep induction ray
[Gamma on left (dashed line)
SP on right (solid line)]
Note:
At the base of the Shale in this region, all
three rays are highly resistive meaning:
•Low probability of water
•Rock is “tighter” or fined grained
• Formation would have to be fractured or
even drilled horizontally to extract the
hydrocarbons
DEPTH 8100 FT
DEPTH 8300 FT
Base of Eagle Ford
Shale in Burleson Co.,
Tx. (Roughly middle
region of shale play)
Obtaining land
lease and
mineral rights
Exploration
Drilling
Profit
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Due to the fine grained compact nature of the shale, the wells have to be
fractured sometimes in multiple stages to exploit the hydrocarbons
Many recent news stories claim that formation fracturing can contaminate
ground water supply—Though not proven, it is still an obstacle due to a
growing public opinion
The process of hydraulically fracturing a well requires potentially millions of
gallons of water– With water being scarce in dry south Texas, the companies
can not afford to make any wasteful mistakes
The process of exploiting the Eagle Ford Shale requires companies to employ
precisely engineered horizontal drilling methods—On average wells are
drilled with approximately 3500 to 5000 feet of deviation
• The eight major companies in the play plan to
spend over $1billion in 2010
• Given the recent setbacks to deep-water drilling
in the Gulf of Mexico, many companies are now
giving higher priority to the Eagle Ford Shale
• Future of Eagle Ford Shale will be active with
many top players vying for their share of
America’s latest large scale petro-resource play
“Jan 19 (Reuters)-Oil and gas company Pioneer Natrual Resources Inc
(PXD.N) siad initial production from its second well in the Eagle Ford
shale in Texas beat its estimates and it is looking for a joint venture for the
shale…”
“The Eagle Ford Shale play is one of these hot emerging areas” Lanny
Pendill-Edward Jones Investments
“With the highest gas rate reported to date in the play, the Crawley z1
exceeded our expectations and confirms that dry gas wells provide strong
economics at today’s prices” CEO Pioneer Natural Resources Scott
Sheffield