Eagle Ford Leads the State

June 1, 2015 Elizabeth Alford

Texas Railroad Commission released its latest statistics showing the state’s oil and gas production continues to impress, with the Eagle Ford leading the way.

Original drilling permits issued for April dropped from 1,919 last year to 848. Of the April total, 721 permits were for new oil and gas wells, 9 to re–enter existing well bores and 118 for re–completions.Broken down even further, April permits included 218 for oil, 51 gas, 530 oil and gas, 40 injection, zero service and nine other.

Statewide, well completions were up in April 2015, with operators reporting 1,867 oil, 314 gas, 125 injection and one other completions. In april 2014, there were 1,012 oil, 92 gas, 21 injection and four other completions. Total well completions for the year are still down by several thousand over this time last year.

Activity in the Eagle Ford continues lead the state in April with 176 permits to drill oil and gas, 222 oil completions and 94 gas completions.

“Texas’ prime production conditions have provided an environment well-suited for a dynamic, thriving oil and gas industry. Today, Texas continues to drive America’s competitiveness in the world’s oil market and ultimate independence from OPEC.”

— Railroad Commissioner, Cristi Craddick

The Commission estimates that final production for March 2015 was 84,879,948 barrels of crude oil and 533,174,979 Mcf of gas, with Eagle Ford counties remaining on top:

COUNTY – CRUDE OIL (BBLS)

KARNES – 6,755,884
LA SALLE – 4,586,791
DE WITT – 4,571,129
MCMULLEN – 3,252,014
GONZALES – 3,072,829
ANDREWS – 3,045,628
MIDLAND – 2,885,602
MARTIN – 2,883,997
UPTON – 2,703,478
10. REEVES – 2,155,608

Comstock Resources Fourth Quarter Delays Push Eagle Ford Growth Into 2014

January 23, 2014 R.T. Dukes

Comstock Resources planned to complete 18 gross (12 net) wells in the Eagle Ford between November and December of 2013.

Delays in completing the wells forced longer shut-ins for adjacent wells and the new wells didn't reach first production until late in December and January.

Comstock brought 10 gross (7.3 net) Eagle Ford wells to production in the last week of December and added 9 gross (6.3 net) in early January of 2014.

Also Read: Comstock Focused on the Eagle Ford - Planning to Spend $400 M in 2014

Current production as of January 21st was 10,000 b/d of oil and the company had 23 gross (17.2 net) Eagle Ford wells waiting to be completed.

Eagle Ford Drives Comstock's Reserves Growth

Development in the Eagle Ford helped Comstock grow proved reserves to almost 22 million bbls and 453 Bcf. Comstock added 5.3 million barrels and 5 Bcf of reserves in the Eagle Ford in 2013.

Read more about Comstock's latest expansion in the region: Comstock - Ursa Reach Eagle Ford Deal Worth $66.5 Million

Overall, Comstock is reporting proved reserves of 584 Bcfe at December 31, 2013. That compares favorably to 551 Bcfe the company reported on December 31, 2012.

Read the full press release at comstockresources.com

Rosetta Resources Has Yet To Complete 23% of Its Drilled Eagle Ford Wells

November 19, 2013 R.T. Dukes

Rosetta Eagle Ford Asset Map - June 2013

Rosetta Resources has completed 180 Eagle Ford wells and has 53 wells drilled and awaiting completion.

To put it another way - approximately 23% of the wells the company has drilled to date are sitting idle waiting to be completed.

Based on rough estimates, that means completion crews are a little more than six months behind drilling operations.

Even though an additional rig will be added in the fourth quarter, Rosetta is expected to begin working off the backlog of drilled wells as it transitions into 2014.

“Rosetta’s third quarter production results continued on a record pace and demonstrate our ability to maintain development of our core Eagle Ford position while integrating the Permian Basin assets into our operations....”

— Jim Craddock, CEO.

Rosetta's daily production was up 33% over the same quarter in 2012 and up 3% over the second quarter to 48,500 boe/d. The company operated five rigs in the third quarter and is expected to run six rigs in the fourth quarter. At Gates Ranch, the company will run 2-3 rigs.

The company's Karnes Trough leases are now fully developed.

Chesapeake's Eagle Ford Production Set to Top 100,000 boe/d by Year-end

November 8, 2013 R.T. Dukes

Chesapeake Eagle Ford Acreage - Drilling Map

Chesapeake is on pace to surpass 100,000 boe/d of net Eagle Ford production in the fourth quarter. Average production in the third quarter was 211,000 gross (95,000 net) boe/d from the play.

Add back Eagle Ford assets sold to EXCO that produced over 6,000 boe/d during the quarter and Chesapeake would have already surpassed the 100,000 barrel mark.

Production is up 82% from the third quarter of 2012 and 11% over the second quarter.

“Our oil assets in the Eagle Ford Shale continue to deliver strong results, prompting us to raise our full-year 2013 oil production guidance by 2 million barrels (mmbbls) to 40 – 42 mmbbls.”

— Mr. Lawler

Chesapeake operated 13 rigs and brought 100 gross wells to sales during the quarter. The company is expected to run more like 20 rigs in 2014.

The average Eagle Ford well brought to sales in the third quarter came online at ~930 boe/d.

The company had 788 producing wells and 117 wells awaiting completion or infrastructure at the end of the quarter.

Read the full press release at chk.com

Swift Energy Is Pumping More Fluid & Proppant in Eagle Ford Completions

October 31, 2013 R.T. Dukes

Swift Energy is testing higher volumes of fluid and proppant in Eagle Ford well completions. The company's number of Eagle Ford completions actually slowed to nine in the third quarter, but production grew due to better well performance.

The company's best well on a boe basis in the third quarter produced over 2,300 boe/d. The completion method utilized on the well included 25% more fluid and proppant. Completion testing didn't stop there.

In a well completed in the fourth quarter, the company tested tighter frac stage intervals and perforation clusters along with fluid and proppant volumes that were double Swift's standard completion. The well performed better than previous wells in the area (~1,600 boe/d at 2,250 PSI), so watch for Swift to begin using a completion design that looks more like what we've seen from EOG.

Swift is now targeting a lower interval of the Eagle Ford and is logging the horizontal section of every well to place completions in the most optimal portions of the wellbore.

“Further, we are optimizing our completion designs with longer lateral lengths, increases in frac stages and the volume of frac sand to increase initial production rates and cumulative production of Eagle Ford shale horizontal wells. We expect continued performance and efficiency improvements as we exploit these relationships in our drilling program.”

— Terry Swift, CEO

Swift grew company-wide production by ~10% in the quarter and continues to deploy approximately 80% of its development capital in the Eagle Ford. The company is also marketing assets in Central Louisiana to fund aggressive development plans in South Texas.