Eagle Ford Shale

Marathon Oil Purchases Additional Eagle Ford Shale Acreage

 Marathon Oil (MRO) reported the purchase of acreage in Texas that is prospective for the Eagle Ford Shale.  The company will pay $3.5 billion to Hilcorp Resources Holdings, LP for 217,000 gross, or 141,000 net acres in Atascosa, Karnes, Gonzales and DeWitt Counties.

 
 
(Yellow - existing MRO acreage, Blue - Hilcorp purchase)

Marathon Oil disclosed other details on the acquired Eagle Ford Shale properties:

• Current production of 17,000 gross or 7,000 net barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) per day from 36 wells. 
• Ten wells drilled and waiting on completion.
• Six rigs operated and two hydraulic fracturing crews under contract.
• Eighty percent of production is crude oil, condensate or natural gas liquids.
• Net production expected to reach 12,000 BOE per day by the end of 2011, and 80,000 BOE per day by 2016.
• Total net risked resource potential of 400 to 500 million BOE.
• Possibility of 100 million BOE of proved reserves booked in 2011.

Anadarko Petroleum - Q4 2010 Conference Call - Eagle Ford Shale Comments

Anadarko Petroleum (APC) reported earnings for the fourth quarter of 2010 and held a conference call on February 1, 2011, with investors and analysts to discuss the results.  The company disclosed additional data on its operations Texas where the company is developing the Eagle Ford Shale. 

“We also continued to achieve reduced drilling cycle times, with notable improvements throughout the onshore portfolio. One of the most dramatic examples was in the Eagle Ford Shale, where our spud-to-release times are now less than 12 days compared to more than 22 days in mid-2009.”

“Turning to the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas, we recently established ourselves as the largest producer in this play. With the existing infrastructure and service agreements in place, about 94% of all completed wells have been flowing to sales. We ended the quarter with gross sales volumes of about 27,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, of which 75% is liquids. This represents a six-fold increase in volumes versus the prior year fourth quarter.”

“At current market prices, the Eagle Ford Shale is generating excellent economics. And with 450 million barrels of oil equivalent and net risk resource potential on our acreage and more than 2,000 identified well sites, we plan to ramp up to 10 rigs by the end of the first quarter of 2011 from two rigs at the beginning of 2010. We continue to evaluate the joint venture structure for our Eagle Ford Shale program similar to what we have done in the Marcellus.”

Source

El Paso Updates Eagle Ford Shale Operations For 2010

El Paso (EP) issued an operational update on its activities in the Eagle Ford Shale, where the company has 170,000 net acres under lease.  The company has 65,000 net acres in the dry gas portion of the play, and 105,000 net acres in the oil window of the Eagle Ford Shale.

El Paso has 9 producing wells, and reported net production of 2,300 barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) per day at the end of 2010.  The company has another 11 wells that have been drilled and are waiting on completion, and estimates that it has another 1,145 drilling locations on its Eagle Ford Shale acreage. 

El Paso proven undeveloped reserves of 25 million BOE in the Eagle Ford Shale at the end of 2010, and estimates its risked and unrisked resource potential at 395 million BOE and 550 million BOE, respectively.