Eagle Ford Shale

Not long ago, Texas could boast about half of the nation’s operating drilling rigs. The Lone Star State’s slice of the drilling pie — a shrinking pie at that — is now down to 46% as producers drop rigs in a low-price environment. January well completions were down almost 45% from a year ago, according to the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC).

Chesapeake Energy Corp. has cut its 2015 capital spending plans by more than one-third and trimmed its rig count to the lowest level in 11 years, but production still should increase by 3-5%, lifted, perhaps surprisingly, by the Haynesville Shale and Mississippian Lime.

Continental Resources Inc. and Newfield Exploration Co., two companies devoted to drilling in the South Central Oklahoma Oil Province (SCOOP), said separately they plan to intensify their focus on the legacy play in 2015, while scaling back capital expenditure (capex) dollars and rigs in other unconventional areas.

Depressed commodity prices and producer cutbacks are the order of the day, but it was only last year that Texas set a record for state/local taxes and royalties collected from the oil and gas industry.

Eagle Ford Shale and Permian Basin operator Rosetta Resources Inc. is dialing back spending yet again, cutting guidance and vowing to fight another day when commodity prices have recovered.

Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc. is retreating to its core acreage in South Texas’ Eagle Ford Shale this year, electing to reduce its activity in Colorado, suspend drilling in the Utica Shale and voluntarily curtail natural gas volumes in the Marcellus Shale.

Vendors have begun offering concessions on pricing for oilfield service (OFS) customers “all over the map” to stay in business, Basic Energy Inc. CEO Roe Patterson said Friday.

The backlog of uncompleted wells will grow in the Eagle Ford and Bakken shales, but so too could the new acreage plays and/or small-scale merger/acquisition activity, according to strategies outlined Thursday by CEOs at EOG Resources and Marathon Oil Corp.

Two Houston-based major players in the Eagle Ford and Bakken shale plays said Thursday they are further cutting back on operations this year in light of the oil price crash.