Goodrich Petroleum's Eagle Ford Drilling Time Down To 10 Days

Goodrich Petroleum Eagle Ford and Pearsall Activity Map
Goodrich Petroleum Eagle Ford and Pearsall Activity Map

Goodrich Petroleum has driven its drilling time down to ten days for wells with 6,000 ft laterals. That equates to 13 days from spud to rig release and 20 days spud-to-spud.

That's almost 60% less than what Goodrich was doing two short years ago. Faster drilling has led to a larger number of drilled, but uncompleted wells. Goodrich now has 9 gross (6 net) wells waiting to be completed.

The company is behind target on completions due to pad drilling, but now expects to complete 25 gross (16.8 net) wells during the year. That's one more well than planned at the beginning of the year.

Goodrich is spending 58% or $115 million of its $200 million, company-wide, budget in the Eagle Ford this year. Goodrich is a historically natural gas focused company, but is now developing the Eagle Ford and exploring the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale. At the end of 2013, the company expects production will have shifted from almost all gas a few years ago to approximately 12% liquids.

If gas prices recover, watch for Goodrich to perform well. Their Eagle Ford acreage is also prospective for the Pearsall Shale.

Read the full press release at goodrichpetroleum.com

Crimson Exploration Merges With Contango Oil

Contango Oil - Crimson Exploration Combined Assets
Contango Oil - Crimson Exploration Combined Assets

Crimson Exploration and Contango Oil announced the companies will merge at the end of April. The new Contango Oil gains exposure to the Eagle Ford in several counties across South Texas.

The combined company will have the option to develop or explore Eagle Ford acreage in Dimmit, Karnes, Liberty, Madison, and Zavala counties.

While not all of its South Texas acreage is prospective for the Eagle Ford, the company has 51,000 net acres prospective for the Buda, Eagle Ford, and other conventional formations, as well as 26,600 net acres prospective for the Woodbine and Eagle Ford in Liberty County.

Contango Oil Eagle Ford Acreage Dimmit Zavala
Contango Oil Eagle Ford Acreage Dimmit Zavala

Crimson had planned development at 160-acre spacing at the company's Zavala & Dimmit acreage and believes upside exist for 80-acre spacing. Additional wells are planned in Karnes County and exploration potential in Madison County is yet to be explored.

Read the full merger announcement at crimsonexploration.com

New Chesapeake CEO Doug Lawler Ran Anadarko's Eagle Ford Ops

Chesapeake Eagle Ford Acreage Map
Chesapeake Eagle Ford Acreage Map

After embattled CEO and founder Aubrey McClendon left Chesapeake in April, the company has been searching for his replacement. On May 2oth, the company announced Robert "Doug" Lawler was chosen to take the reins as CEO.

Lawler comes from Anadarko Petroleum, where his most recent role was VP of international and deepwater operations. He has worked for Anadarko or one of its predecessors, Kerr-McGee, since 1988. My guess is he'll be moving from the Woodlands to Oklahoma City in short order.

“He is a proven oil and gas executive with significant expertise in asset development, operations management and engineering as well as experience in corporate and strategic planning. ”

Before his latest post, Lawler led shale developments for Anadarko. That means he is intimately familiar with two of Chesapeake's major plays, the Eagle Ford and Marcellus. He also boasts an engineering background, which likely means he has a little different perspective than the previous CEO. Chesapeake was formerly run by landmen who led the "land grab" of the past ten years.

Mr. Dunham, Chairman of the Board, said: “Doug is a talented and proven executive with the ideal skill set to lead Chesapeake forward and capitalize fully on our world-class assets."

Lawler will be tasked with developing the vast resources Chesapeake has already secured across the U.S. The company is the second largest natural gas producer in the country behind ExxonMobil.

Read the full press release at chk.com

La Salle County Refinery Planned Near Gardendale

Gardendale Rail Map
Gardendale Rail Map

Worldwide Energy Consortium is planning a refinery in La Salle County near Gardendale. Significant volumes of oil pass through the Gardendale Rail system and through Plains All American Pipeline's gathering system.

The Whitetail Refinery will be built to take advantage of growing Eagle Ford production in the area. The refinery is in the permitting and engineering phase, but the company expects it will be operational by the fourth quarter of 2014. That's fast moving for a refinery.

“The rapid deployment of modern, cost efficient refining operations directly into the new production regions will positively impact the producers, consumers, and the investors in our projects.”
— Dave Martinelli, CEO Worldwide Energy Consortium, Inc.

Read the full press release at worldecorp.com

Eagle Ford Regional Rig Count at 264 on May 17, 2013

Eagle Ford Oil Production Forecasts
Eagle Ford Oil Production Forecasts

The Eagle Ford Shale drilling rig count decreased by three to 264 rigs running. That is one more rig than the average so far this year.

We spent time out at Bentek Energy's Benposium Conference this week and there were a lot of great Eagle Ford takeaways. One of those was a comparison of the company's Eagle Ford oil production forecast from two years ago to today. In short, the play is producing just as much today as the company had forecast for 2016 and is now projected to surpass 1.4 million barrels per day in 2016.

Read our highlights in the article Eagle Ford Oil Production Growing Twice As Fast - Bentek

*Note* Now quoting Baker Hughes. Baker Hughes also releases its own Eagle Ford Rig Count that covers the 14 core counties (~230 rigs). Our numbers cover a 30 county area impacted by Eagle Ford development. A full list of the counties included can be found in the table at the bottom of this article.

Eagle Ford Oil & Gas Rigs

[ic-l]A total of 37 rigs are targeting natural gas. Six began drilling this week.

Natural gas prices were up a little to more than $4 again at $4.06/mmbtu on Friday afternoon. It has been a mild May, so having a $4 price and not a $2 price is a nice gift for natural gas producers.

A total of 227 oil rigs are running in the region. WTI futures were almost unchanged from the past two weeks at $96/bbl on Friday afternoon. Eagle Ford light crude traded at $91.50/bbl on May 16th.

Karnes and La Salle counties lead development with 39 and 34 rigs running, respectively. See the full list of drilling by county at the bottom of the page.

South Texas Oil & Gas News:

Be sure to visit our South Texas Oilfield Job Listings to search openings and come back weekly for updates.

Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by County

What is the Rig Count?

The Eagle Ford Shale Rig Count is an index of the total number of oil & gas drilling rigs running across a 30 county area in South Texas. The South Texas rigs referred to in this article are for ALL drilling reported by Baker Hughes and not solely wells targeting the Eagle Ford formation. All land rigs and onshore rig data shown here are based upon industry estimates provided by the Baker Hughes Rig Count and/or Smith Service Co's (Schlumberger) Smith Rig Count.