For release, June 22, 2018 -- USGS estimates 8.5 billion bbls of oil in Texas' Eagle Ford Group. “This assessment is a bit different than previous ones, because it ranks
in the top five of assessments we’ve done of continuous resources for
both oil and gas,” said USGS scientist Kate Whidden, lead author for the
assessment. “Usually, formations produce primarily oil or gas, but the
Eagle Ford is rich in both.” Some data points:
map at the link: a very, very thin footprint in southern Texas, stretching from the western border with Mexico to Louisiana
estimate of undiscovered, technically recoverable resources in continuous accumulations
one of the most prolific continuous accumulations in the United States,
and is comprised of mudstone with varying amounts of carbonate
continuous oil and gas is dispersed throughout a geologic formation
rather than existing as discrete, localized occurrences, such as those
in conventional accumulations. Because of that, continuous resources
commonly require special technical drilling and recovery methods, such
as hydraulic fracturing
the USGS is the only provider of publicly available estimates of
undiscovered technically recoverable oil and gas resources of onshore
lands and offshore state waters. The USGS assessment of the Eagle Ford
Group was undertaken as part of a nationwide project assessing domestic
petroleum basins using standardized methodology and protocol
the new assessment of the Eagle Ford Formation may be found online
Many analysts combine crude oil and natural gas liquids when they talk about "oil and gas production." Often the EIA does: in this case, crude oil and NGLs = 10.4 billion bbls.
66,000,000,000,000 / 6,001 = 10,998,166,972 boe.
If I've done the arithmetic correctly -- disclaimer -- I often make simple arithmetic errors -- the Eagle Ford is about 50/50 crude oil-NGLs / natural gas.
With regard to natural gas, this link (also above). The numbers below come form multiple sources; many data points are old; and many will opine that the Marcellus and Utica are much bigger than currently assessed:
Russia: 6,000 trillion cubic feet
Iran: 1,000 trillion cubic feet
Qatar: 900 trillion cubic feet
Turkmenistan: 600 trillion cubic feet
US: 350 trillion cubic feet
#11: Australia: 152 trillion cubic feet (as of January, 2014). (See this post.)
This is a bit dated; I'm not sure if there is more recent information from non-pay sites. This article in Forbes (linked below) was posted shortly after this post in the blog with the top 15 oil-producing counties in the US.
The
energy ministers of Russia and Saudi Arabia, which together produce
more than a fifth of the world’s crude, said at the G20 in China that
they could limit output in the future, while establishing a “working
group” to explore other ways to reduce volatility in markets. Russia is
the largest exporter outside the Opec cartel.
“Freezing production is one of the preferred possibilities but it
does not have to happen specifically today,” Saudi oil minister Khalid
Al Falih said.
Russia
was ready to join the producers’ cartel in freezing output in April
before Saudi Arabia collapsed the talks at the last minute, refusing to
join any deal without the participation of its regional rival Iran.
Russia’s energy minister Alexander Novak described Monday’s agreement as “historic” but tensions remained readily apparent.
While Mr Novak said that an output cap was “the most effective
instrument” with details of a plan “currently being discussed”, Mr Falih
suggested that freezing production may not be necessary.
Mr Novak also said a production deal may not have to include Iran
until Tehran’s production had recovered to pre-sanctions levels. Mr
Falih said he believed, however, that Iran’s output was already at that
level.
One can read between the lines what could be going on here.
Later, 8:08 p.m. Central Time, September 5, 2016: Reuters reports that Saudi Arabia, Russia sign oil pact; may limit output in future. Oil futures up 70 cents, trading at just over $45. Still not nearly enough for Saudi Arabia. The interesting thing: at $45 oil, Russia and US are doing just fine. It is Saudi Arabia and others in OPEC that can't live on $45 oil. Very ironic how things have worked out.
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A Note For The Granddaughters
My three most recent purchases for recreational reading:
Cistercian Abbeys: History and Architecture, Jean-Francois Leroux-Dhuys, c. 1998, a coffee-table book
How To Read Water: Clues and Patterns from Puddles to the Sea, Tristan Gooley, c. 2016
Dinosaurs: The Grand Tour, Keiron Pim, field notes by Jack Horner, c. 2013, 2016
It is interesting how things work out. All the time I spent reading about dinosaurs while growing up often came back to me, thinking that it was all a waste of time. They had died out -- but a footnote -- although a huge footnote -- in geologic history.
But two huge surprises: 1) much of what we know about dinosaurs came from my backyard, the Hell Creek Fossil Beds in eastern Montana and to fields in southwestern North Dakota; and, 2) hey, the dinosaurs never died out. The non-avian dinosaurs may have died out, but the birds are doing just fine, thank you.
With regard to How To Read Water: it all has to do with our older son-in-law's love of the sea; and our oldest granddaughter's desire to be a marine biologist some day, although her interests are evolving.
And finally, what a huge surprise. While visiting the Kimbell Museum last week, I happened to come across Leroux-Dhuys' Cistercian Abbeys coffee-table book.
From the book:
The Cistercians' Carta Caritatis is, even today, a model of organization. Its innovation lies in the proposal for a system that preserves the independence of each participant in the whole within an interdependence that guarantees the respect of a centralized "general line." The Constitution eliminated the rigidity and inefficiencies of the essentially feudal pyramidal system that was usual in medieval religious Orders, and particularly that of the Cluniacs.
The cult of the Virgin Mary:
Bernard of Clairvaux was well aware that he lived in a time that was marked by the emergence of a new sensibility based on the discovery of profane love, and, in particular, that of women....a number of theologians saw this as nothing but the sin that leads to Hell... Bernard took a page out of the troubadours' book.
He placed love at the heart of his mystical theology, and sublimated it into devotion to the Virgin, queen of Heaven. The Cistercians kept women out of their monasteries, but all the abbeys were placed under the protection of Our Lady, and the Salve Regina (the antiphon of Le Puy) became, under the influence of Bernard of Clairvaux, the last devotion of each day in all Cistercian communities.
Warming to his fantastic talent for writing, Bernard of Clairvaux, the "honey-tongued Doctor," developed endless elaborations on the theme of the love of God and of his Church in the extraordinary series of 86 sermons on the Song of Solomon.
The Salve Regina can be easily found on YouTube.
I spent many, many hours and days and weeks hiking Yorkshire County in northern England. There were days when I would lay (lie) on the green grass surrounding perhaps the most famous Cistercian Abbey in England, Fountains Abbey, and walk on the yellow grass along the small creek that ran alongside it. The creek had a name, I assume. Ah, yes, --- there over at google maps: the River Skell. A river, not a creek.
From Norah Jones:
I want to walk with you
On a cloudy day
In fields where the yellow grass grows knee-high
So won't you try to come away with me.
The announcement of the joint venture between ZaZa and EOG is a
positive development for the play, although perhaps of a smaller
magnitude than the headlines appear to suggest.
EOG is no novice
as it comes to complex horizontal oil plays, and its interest in the
Eaglebine certainly sends a positive signal. EOG's Eagle Ford expertise
is particularly important in the Eaglebine context.
At least three
test wells will be drilled by EOG before 2013 year end on ZaZa's
acreage. In the event of a positive result, drilling activity can be
accelerated.
However, it would be premature to read much into the
announcement. EOG is paying a relatively low price for its option to
test the acreage and would be able to exit the Joint Venture after three
wells should the results disappoint.
Penn Virginia provides an update on Lavaca County Eagle Ford Shale
operations; Schacherl #1H, with 22 frac stages and a lateral length of
~ 5,450 feet, had an average initial production rate of 1,277 boepd of
wellhead volume: The third exploratory "earning" well, the Schacherl #1H (75%
working interest) on our 13,500 gross acre area of mutual interest in
Lavaca County was completed and turned in line at the end of May. The
Schacherl #1H, with 22 frac stages and a lateral length of ~ 5,450
feet, had an average initial production rate of 1,277 barrel of oil
equivalents per day (BOEPD) of wellhead volume (90% oil and 10% wet
gas; 1,011 BOEPD average over the first seven days of production). This
well has been significantly choked with a flowing pressure of ~ 3,350
pounds per square inch on a 14/64" choke as the recovery of frac fluid
continues.
Data points
significantly choked (14/64ths)
short laterals
nice IPs
22 stage fracs
if my calculations are correct, PennVirginia has a very small position in this county: 13,500 gross acres in a county that looks to be slightly more than 620,000 acres
Don't worry. I'm not going to start following the Eagle Ford vis a vis the Bakken, but it's interesting to compare the Eagle Ford wells with thte Bakken.
