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.
Geological Controls on Matrix Permeability of the Eagle Ford Shale (Cretaceous), South Texas, U.S.A.
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Published:January 01, 2016
Abstract
Permeability measurements made using innovative techniques on 36 intact samples from five wells in south Texas provide the basis for a dual-porosity reservoir simulation model for the Eagle Ford Shale (Upper Cretaceous). In the model, matrix storage feeds a network of progressively larger natural and induced fractures that carry hydrocarbons to the wellbore. The Eagle Ford consists almost entirely of interbedded marl and limestone. Across these rock types, permeability increases with increasing calcite content. The limestones are more permeable than the marls due to the presence of fractures. Permeability also increases with the degree of lamination but the mechanism...
- bitumens
- carbon
- carbonate rocks
- clastic rocks
- controls
- Cretaceous
- Eagle Ford Formation
- electron microscopy data
- grain size
- Gulfian
- kerogen
- limestone
- marl
- matrix
- measurement
- Mesozoic
- mudstone
- oil wells
- organic carbon
- organic compounds
- permeability
- petroleum
- porosity
- pressure
- properties
- reservoir rocks
- sedimentary rocks
- SEM data
- simulation
- solvents
- steady-state processes
- Texas
- total organic carbon
- United States
- Upper Cretaceous
- X-ray diffraction data
- southern Texas