The Eagle Ford Shale: A Renaissance in U.S. Oil Production

Known as a world-class source rock for years, the Eagle Ford Shale became a world-class oil reservoir early in the second decade of the 21st century. Oil production from the Eagle Ford grew from 352 barrels of oil per day (BOPD) in 2007 to over 1.7 million BOPD in March 2015. Since then, the play has been a victim of its own success. Production from shale oil in the United States has helped contribute to a glut in world oil supply that led to a precipitous drop in oil prices beginning in the summer of 2014. As prices fell from over $100 per barrel in July 2014, to less than $30 per barrel in January 2016, production from the Eagle Ford declined over 500,000 BOPD. Anyone interested in the geology behind this remarkable play and the new ideas that reshaped the global energy supply should read AAPG Memoir 110.
Assessing Well Performance in a Prolific Liquids-rich Shale Play—An Eagle Ford Case Study
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Published:January 01, 2016
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CiteCitation
Paul R. Clarke, Douglas H. Portis, Gervasio J. Barzola, Hector Bello, Neil K. Basu, 2016. "Assessing Well Performance in a Prolific Liquids-rich Shale Play—An Eagle Ford Case Study", The Eagle Ford Shale: A Renaissance in U.S. Oil Production, John Breyer
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Abstract
A series of subsurface reservoir and geological properties are reviewed, specific to the Eagle Ford Shale of south Texas and compared with production trends. Currently, an area in excess of 7 million acres has been tested for Eagle Ford production potential by hydraulically fracture-stimulated, horizontal wellbores. The bulk of this area is suitably thick (>125 ft [38.1 m]), organic-rich (>2 wt. % total organic carbon), and attains a thermal maturity consistent with hydrocarbon generation for Type II kerogen (>435°C Tmax). Production trends, highlighted by well performance analysis from over 1450 wells, point to a clear differentiation of...
- case studies
- controls
- Cretaceous
- Eagle Ford Formation
- evaluation
- genesis
- Gulfian
- heterogeneity
- history
- hydraulic fracturing
- kerogen
- lithofacies
- Lower Cretaceous
- Mesozoic
- naturally fractured reservoirs
- oil wells
- organic compounds
- overpressure
- petroleum
- pressure
- production
- reservoir properties
- reservoir rocks
- shale oil
- spatial distribution
- temperature
- Texas
- thermal maturity
- thickness
- United States
- Upper Cretaceous
- variations
- well logs
- southern Texas