frac crews — Eagle Ford Shale News — Eagle Ford Shale Play

You might have heard a few operators mention "frac holidays" during earnings season the past two quarters. Don't worry, you're not going to be flooded with discount emails and advertisements.

A "Frac Holiday" is a term used when an operator let's its frac crews take time off for various reasons.

Oil and gas operations have hundreds of steps and processes. Companies attempt to plan best as possible, but one thing they don't want is a bottle neck at the end of the line. If a company can't complete a well, it has a big investment and no revenue. For that purpose, a lot of companies work with excess frac'ing capacity. When crews get ahead of the drilling schedule, crews will be given time off to allow rigs to catch up.

EOG Resources' Eagle Ford assets continue to deliver. The company brought on the largest producing well in the play to date in the second quarter. The Gonzales County Boothe Unit #10H came on line at 4,820 bpd of oil, 972 bpd of NGLs, and 4.5 mmcfd of natural gas. That's more than 6,500 boe/d from one well. Better yet, the Boothe Unit #9H, an offset well in the same unit, produced over 4,600 boe/d when it came online.

Drilled from the same pad as the Boothe wells to minimize costs, the Dreyer Unit #19H and #20H were turned to sales at initial rates of 3,703 and 2,650 Bopd with 460 and 300 Bpd of NGLs and 2.1 and 1.4 MMcfd of natural gas, respectively. EOG has 100 percent working interest in these four wells.

Enterprise Expansions Add Marketing Options for EOG

The company expanded its marketing options when the Enterprise's Eagle Ford Crude Oil System came online over the summer. The 24-inch oil pipeline gives the company direct access into the Gulf Coast refinery market. Enterprise also commissioned a natural gas processing plant being utilized by EOG.

EOG is the Largest Oil Producer in the Eagle Ford

EOG's net production in June 2012 averaged more than 103,000 boe/d. The company is largest oil producer in the play. With wells coming online at more than 4,000 b/d, the Eagle Ford is driving production growth for the entire company. EOG increased its crude oil production growth target from 33% to 37%. A few other highlights include:

EOG will also continue to test down spacing across the play. 65 to 90-acre test have had very strong results and tighter spacing tests are in the works.
Self-sourced sand and frac crews are also providing a strategic advantage. The company estimates it is making an 80% after tax rate of return on its investments in this arena
330 net wells will be drilled in 2012
20 rigs will run through the remainder of the year - Down from an average of 26 in the first half of the year
Average number of drilling days per well has dropped to 14

Read more quotes from the company's press release at our EOG Resources page.