Coastal Bend business should take advantage of Eagle Ford Shale boom

CORPUS CHRISTI — Q: Will the Eagle Ford Shale oil and gas development help small businesses in South Texas?

A: Yes. It's having a major impact on small business opportunities in and around the 24 counties that sit atop the formation. The total impact is expected to be $13.9 billion this year and increase to $48 billion in 2020. By comparison, the annual GDP of the three county Corpus Christi metropolitan area is about $15 billion. Recovery of oil and gas from tight shale became possible about five years ago with the development of horizontal drilling and fracturing technology. Fracturing of the rock holding the oil and gas with high pressure water and sand releases it to flow to the surface. The Eagle Ford formation is about 50 miles wide and 400 miles long running roughly Northeast from Laredo.

There are several tiers to the economic impact. Tier one is the drilling companies, tank and pipeline builders and companies that own and operate the wells, tanks and pipelines. Those typically are large companies not small ones. Tier two is the small companies that provide goods, supplies and services to the tier one companies. Those include earth moving to prepare well and construction sites, hauling of water, sand, chemicals, equipment and materials and supplies, repairing motors, pumps, compressors and other equipment, crane services, self employed rig welders, electricians, pipe fitters, boilermakers, riggers and instrument technicians.

Source: Caller.com 

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South Texas Struggling With Oil Boom

CARRIZO SPRINGS, Texas -- Once sleepy South Texas towns are finding themselves wide awake, caught in the whirlwind of an oil boom.

Residents of Carrizo Springs, formerly a town of just fewer than 6,000 people, are finding empty store shelves and crowded streets that are crumbling under the weight of nearly 3,000 newcomers.

The growth comes courtesy of the development of the Eagle Ford Shale deposit, which has been billed as the next big oil and natural gas play in Texas.

"Like with any growth, there's growing pains," said Dimmit County Commissioner Mike Uriega. "Our infrastructure has been affected; our roads are being torn up."

County roads around Carrizo Springs are now flooded with 18-wheelers, hauling oil and gas out of the area, and more rigs are in the process of going up.

Octavio Rodriguez, who moved to Carrizo Springs to work in the oil fields about 14 months ago, said it looks like the small town couldn't keep up with the pace of the growth.

"Sometimes you get to gas pumps and there's no diesel," said Rodriguez. "You go into the store and it's crowded. People get frustrated and leave."

Experts have said the Eagle Ford appears to be the real deal, which means towns like Carrizo Springs will simply have to adapt and adjust.


Source: KSAT 
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Analysis: 100 years after boom, shale makes Texas oil hot again

Over the past two years, some 30 companies have moved in to a shale prospect in South Texas called the Eagle Ford that could add 420,000 barrels per day (bpd) to U.S. crude oil production, nearly matching the output of OPEC member Ecuador.

The first phase of this latest boom has accelerated over the past year. Companies have hastened development of the estimated 3 billion barrels of shale oil across Eagle Ford by bringing in the horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques that opened up North Dakota.

Where wildcatters and entrepreneurs pounced on the Spindletop boom at the start of the 20th century, engineers and business analysts are leading the charge to develop reserves under 20,000 square miles of cattle land in Eagle Ford.

Source: Reuters

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Indigo Announces New Eagle Ford Horizontal Well Permit in Louisiana

HOUSTON, May 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Indigo II Louisiana Operating LLC ("Indigo") today announced a new horizontal well permit targeting the Louisiana Eagle Ford Shale ("LA Eagle Ford") formation.  Indigo's proposed Bentley Lumber 23H #1, Section 23, T5N-R5W, Rapides Parish, Louisiana, is permitted to a proposed total measured depth of 15,500' and is projected to include a 4,000' horizontal lateral section targeting the LA Eagle Ford zone at approximately 10,600' true vertical depth.  It is anticipated that the well will be completed through the horizontal segment with 15 fracture stimulation stages.  This new horizontal well will be located eight miles north of Indigo's recent vertical LA Eagle Ford "test" well, the Bentley Lumber 32 #1, T4N-R5W, Vernon Parish, Louisiana, drilled and completed earlier this year.  Full conventional cores were taken through the LA Eagle Ford section in the Bentley Lumber 32 #1, a suite of modern logs was run and the objective section was subsequently tested by two fracture stimulation stages in this wellbore.  The vertical well, which reached a total depth of 12,020', established LA Eagle Ford oil production (42.2 API gravity) in the center of Indigo's acreage position. 

Bill Pritchard, Indigo's Chairman and CEO stated:  "Indigo began its pursuit of this new oil shale play back in mid-2008 and has accumulated over 240,000 net acres of leasehold and mineral fee in central Louisiana that is prospective from the Louisiana Eagle Ford Shale formation. This horizontal oil shale play will involve considerable time and capital to fully develop, and it is Indigo's intent to eventually secure a joint venture partner in order to establish oil production over the entirety of its leasehold."

Source: PR Newswire

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