Texas Builders Are Moving to Rural Eagle Ford Areas

Texas builders are moving from San Antonio and Houston into more rural areas of South Texas where the housing market is much stronger. Major home developments have been built in La Vernia, Floresville, and another is on the way in Kenedy. With the 10,000 plus direct jobs and many more indirect jobs that have been created to date, there will likely be a housing boom for many years in rural areas like Carrizo Springs and Floresville. 

Now more developers and builders from San Antonio and beyond are moving into the sparsely populated Eagle Ford Shale counties to build everything from housing to pipe yards to warehouses.

Pleasanton native Garrett Ruple moved back home from Houston about two years ago when he realized how much work was available in the Eagle Ford Shale. “All of my friends from college are now in Houston, and everybody and their dog was trying to figure out a way to do projects in South Texas,” he said. “I was watching from afar.”

Read the entire news release at fuelfix.com

Carrizo Oil & Gas Exceeding Production Goals for 2011

Carrizo Oil & Gas plans to reach 7,000 bopd by the end of 2012 and is already surpassing current production goals. The Eagle Ford and Niobrara shales have added almost all of the liquids production to Carrizo's production mix that was previously dominated by natural gas. Company wide liquids production stands at over 6,000 bopd, so it doesn't look like they'll have any trouble hitting 7,000 bopd with 20+ Eagle Ford wells planned in 2012.

"It may have appeared optimistic when we announced our 5,000 bopd target in mid-2010 given that we were producing approximately 400 bopd at the time and had no production from the Eagle Ford or Niobrara," commented President and CEO S. P. "Chip" Johnson IV, "however I had confidence that our operations staff would be able to quickly ramp production from our leasehold in these two plays. I believe reaching the 5,000 bopd milestone is an outstanding achievement which exemplifies the quality of Carrizo's operations team. The initiation of production from these last eight wells brings our well count to 23 gross producing Eagle Ford wells with another 13 gross wells drilled waiting on completion and 9 gross Niobrara wells producing with one gross well waiting on completion.

Eagle Ford Shale Oil & Gas Jobs for Veterans

Jobs for veterans are in abundance in South Texas where the Eagle Ford Shale boom has added thousands of open positions. EagleFordShale.com proudly supports our troops and our Eagle Ford Shale Jobs board is the perfect place for veterans to apply for their next career. For many years, the oil & gas industry has hired military personnel into engineering, field technician, maintenance, truck driving (CDL) and supply chain roles. With energy booming in Texas, the oil and gas industry is a great area to launch a civilian career. Visit both the Eagle Ford Shale Job Listings and Eagle Ford Shale Job Fairs pages to begin your search today. You'll find a searchable jobs listing board and a schedule of Eagle Ford Shale job fairs where you can apply in person.

A recent job fair in Robstown, TX, had more than 2,000 jobs on display and future job fairs are planned in both Laredo, TX and San Antonio, TX. Many more fairs are in the works in the surrounding area that reaches to Corpus Christi, Houston, and Victoria as well.

Current openings include equipment operators, mechanical positions, operations and technical roles at major companies such as:

• Chesapeake Energy
• Marathon Oil
• Pioneer Natural Resources
• Statoil
• Taslisman

Search for jobs that fit your qualifications and check back often as open positions are changing daily.

Eagle Ford Air Quality to be Monitored - TCEQ

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has plans to monitor emissions levels related to the Eagle Ford Shale. The commission will place monitors in 24-Eagle Ford counties. This comes as no surprise as San Antonio is already close to reaching nonattainment. That means San Antonio is close to not meeting EPA standards for emissions. Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston are the only two areas in Texas considered nonattainment areas. If the Eagle Ford development adds significant emissions in the San Antonio metropolitan area, it's not likely the city will stay in compliance with federal standards. With monitors in place, we should know relatively soon. Natural Gas and oil production do not directly contribute to higher emissions levels, but truck traffic and remote power sources do. The use of both will decrease as adequate pipeline infrastructure comes online and as electric utilities bring power to the more remote areas of drilling. 

With recent Texas and EPA squables regarding water in the Barnett Shale, it will be interesting to see how this evolves in South Texas. Eagle Ford Shale water concerns have lead headlines to date, but it won't take much publicity from the EPA to bring air quality to the forefront of everyone's thoughts.

Read more about the commissions monitoring at bizjournals.com

Copano and Magellan Plan Eagle Ford Condensate Line to Corpus Christi

Copano Energy and Magellan Midstream are planning a midstream joint venture (Double Eagle Pipeline LLC) that will construct almost 150 miles of pipe to deliver condensate to Magellan's Corpus Christi marine terminal. Eagle Ford pipeline and midstream capacity will get a boost of 100,000 bbls/d when the system comes online. The system will also include a truck unloading facility near Three Rivers, TX. The two companies will also make improvements to existing facilities. Copano will convert a 50-mile natural gas pipeline to condensate and Magellan will add 500,000 bbls of storage at the Corpus Christi terminal.

Statoil and Talisman Energy who have joint development in the Eagle Ford are the primary shippers

"Magellan looks forward to joining forces with Copano for this project that provides significant strategic value for both parties and our customers," said Michael Mears, Magellan's president and chief executive officer. "Combined, we are able to provide an attractive option for shippers to deliver petrochemical quality Eagle Ford condensate for use in Corpus Christi or higher-valued Texas markets via Magellan's marine capabilities."

"This project represents the next logical step in Copano's strategy of offering a full set of midstream services to Eagle Ford Shale producers and we look forward to working with Magellan on this opportunity," said R. Bruce Northcutt, Copano's president and chief executive officer. "By combining Copano's pipeline assets with access to Magellan's terminal at Corpus Christi, the joint venture will be able to leverage existing infrastructure and provide producers timely access to market alternatives at very competitive rates. The joint venture will continue to look for ways to expand the project and capture other condensate and oil-related growth opportunities in the Eagle Ford Shale play."

Read the entire press release at copanoenergy.com