The Department of Energy plans to spend $8 million for a laboratory in the Eagle Ford that will test new solutions for unconventional oil and gas recovery.

Study: Oil and Gas Still Essential to Eagle Ford Shale Economy

The Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station will partner with WildHorse Resource Development Corporation to develop a new field laboratory in the Eagle Ford. The company will contribute three wells for testing during the study.

Dr. Dan Hill will lead the project and will collaborate with two major U.S. universities, a DOE national laboratory and multiple industry partners. Hill is the director of TEES' Crisman Institute for Petroleum Research, Noble Chair holder and professor in the Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University.

Some of the goals of the project include:

• Improving the effectiveness of shale oil production
• Learning more about the hydraulic fracture systems created and the subsequent reservoir flow patterns in hydraulically fractured unconventional reservoirs
• Influencing future drilling and well completion practices in shale reservoirs