Eagle Ford Shale

The Eagle Ford shale rock formation has changed the lives of many, not only throughout the state of Texas, but also of countless individuals around the world. With the recent combining of two familiar technologies, horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, oil and gas companies have developed a method of extracting minerals from shale rock. Shale houses both natural gas and oil resources within its thick formation, a gold mine, but also impenetrable until recently. The landowners who sit on top of this amazing natural rock feature seem to have struck gold, but with environmentalist concerned over the long-term effects that drilling and fracturing may bring, the energy companies must prove that these processes are safe and provide more beneficial than harmful evidence.

The Eagle Ford Shale

The Eagle Ford shale rock formation, considered useless and almost a crutch to those landowners who sit on top of it, has become one of the most economic and financial gold mines in history due to recent advances and applications of already existing technologies. Historically, producers considered shale formations to be sources of oil and gas, but not to be access points because shale is not sufficiently porous or permeable to release its hydrocarbons efficiently. (Wiseman, P. 2011) Things have changed, however.

What is the Eagle Ford Shale?

Named after the town of Eagle Ford, Texas, the Eagle Ford shale is located in South Texas within the Western Gulf Basin; the Eagle Ford shale rock formation stretches out over 30 counties. The core counties include an area that stretches from north of Gonzales down to Webb County at the Texas-Mexican border. ("Eagle Ford Shale Play", September 2011) Mainly falling on top of land known for producing some of the best whitetail deer and hunting operations in the nation, the land that the Eagle Ford falls on is rich with mesquite trees in the south and pine trees as it stretches east. The formation itself sits at depths between 4,000 and 14,000 feet and sits beneath the Austin Chalk formation, considered "the world's first resource play" according to Mark Sundland, the drilling manager for Anadarko Petroleum. (2011) Shale rock is known for producing significant amounts of dry and wet gasses, condensates, and most importantly oil. Unlike other shale rock formations however, the Eagle Ford does not exhibit the natural fracturing within the formation. It was not sufficiently porous enough to allow for the release of its all-important hydrocarbons efficiently. This means that the resources were not accessible. It would seem there must have been a leap in technology, an enormous rise in oil and gas prices, or something else significant to cause such a major rush to the Eagle Ford shale formation beneath these small Texas towns, but instead it was the combining of two older technologies already in existence, horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing.

Horizontal Drilling and Hydraulic Fracturing

With the recent combining of these two familiar technologies, one would have to stop and think, what took so long? The benefit that horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing has provided to not only energy companies who are perfecting this resource extracting technique, but also to the land and mineral owners who these companies must now provide compensation for, cannot be ignored. Individually the techniques have been used for years, but now it seems as though combing the two is a match made in heaven.

Hydraulic fracturing is a procedure that can increase the flow of oil or gas from a well. The process initiates by pumping liquids down into a subsurface rock unit under pressures that are high enough to fracture the rock. The goal is to create a network of interconnected fractures that will serve as pore spaces for the movement of the rocks resources into the well bore. ("Hydraulic Fracturing of Oil & Gas Wells Drilled in Shale", 2011) Multi-level fracturing involves this same process beginning at a set depth beneath the surface, then rose to a certain interval level where the process is done once again. Multi-level fracturing is used for extremely thick shale formations, where resources are trapped within tiny pore spaces that are not interconnected and lack permeability.

Horizontal drilling is the idea of turning a drill well on its side and drilling directionally, as opposed to the traditional up and down vertical drill-hole sites. Horizontal drilling is not a recent innovation but had never been used to its full potential,

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