Updates
Later, 9:51 am: I posted the story below earlier this morning, posting it quickly to get it to readers while waiting for the day to start, not thinking much about it. But on the way into Boston this a.m. I thought about the article again, and three thoughts came to mind:
a) regardless of how this plays out (Eagle Ford vs Bakken), this is really quite something. For Texas, the story is "lost" because it was already known as an oil state; this just adds another chapter. For North Dakota, it is amazing (for me) to see North Dakota playing at the same level as Texas when it comes to oil. Not many have associated North Dakota with oil;
b) by Texas standards, that really is not much of a difference between 1,300- and 1,500-thousand bbls/day, especially when they are just projections and anything can happen; and,
c) for North Dakota -- well, at least for me -- 1,300-thousand -- 1.3 million bbls of oil per day really is a huge number. I think it's a "new" number, and it's not very far off -- 2016?I don't know about you, but almost tripling "our" output between now and 2016 is quite remarkable. Think of the pipeline that needs to be laid, the unit trains that will be added, and the number of F-350's on the back roads being driven by women who need to check the status of the wells, the pipelines, and just about everything else.
Original Post
Link here to RBN Energy.Last week we covered the incredible growth and potential of the Bakken, where production is just over 600 MB/d headed toward 1,300 Mb/d in 2016 based on Bentek forecasts.
We were immediately inundated with demands for equal time from that other super-high-growth tight oil play – the Eagle Ford. “Hey”, say the Eaglefordians – “We are now the most active horizontal oil play, blowing past the Williston Basin late last year. Don’t you think we deserve just as much airtime?” Yes, they do. This week the total Eagle Ford rig count came in at 274 with 202 targeting oil. According to www.eaglefordshale.com, both numbers are records.
The numbers are definitely off the scale. From only 50 Mb/d as recently as April 2010, Eagle Ford production is now over 500 Mb/d (yes, 10X in two years) and according to Bentek headed to 1,500 Mb/d in 2016, or a couple of hundred thousand barrels per day over the Bakken.For investors, the opportunities have increased several-fold.
