Texas Railroad Commissioner David Porter has assembled an Eagle Ford Task Force charged with establishing best practices for development of the South Texas play based on input from across the industry and affected communities.

“The Eagle Ford Shale has the potential to be the single most significant economic development in our state’s history,” Porter said. “We must develop this shale responsibly, finding the proper way to develop these resources while ensuring environmental protection.”

Last April Porter announced his plan to assemble the task force (see Shale Daily, April 14). The body is composed of community leaders, elected officials, water representatives, environmental groups, oil and gas producers, pipeline companies, oil services companies (including a hydraulic fracturing company, a trucking company and a water resources management company), landowners, mineral owners and royalty owners.

“We are very hopeful that the diversity of interests represented on the task force will lend a maximum level of credibility to the panel’s activities with the public at large and with the news media,” said America’s Natural Gas Alliance Texas State Lead, David Blackmon. “By creating a broad-based group and committing to conduct its activities in a transparent manner, we believe Commissioner Porter is doing a tremendous public service for the oil and natural gas industry, the Eagle Ford region and the people of Texas.”

Task force members are:

The task force met Wednesday in San Antonio and set an agenda. Porter plans for the task force to meet monthly, with the second meeting occurring in late August in the Eagle Ford region.

The task force will advise on the continuing development of one of the nation’s most robust shale plays. The Eagle Ford had 198 rigs at work in the week ending July 22, according to NGI‘s Unconventional Rig Count, the most of any North American shale play and 85 rigs (75%) more than a year ago. The number of rigs added in the Eagle Ford over the past 12 months accounts for 91% of the total number of unconventional rigs added since last year.