The Eagle Ford Shale Of McMullen and LaSalle Counties.

Bob "Bud" Williams and his wife Laura were opening a bale of hay for their hungry cattle when they saw the dust of an approaching vehicle on their long ranch road in McMullen County, Texas. Bob continued what he was doing, doling the slabs of coastal bermuda hay out to his prize Brangus bull and cows. The drought had been hard and hay was getting more and more expensive. Bob had always hoped to have an oil or gas well like some of his distant neighbors. After all, that was about the only thing that made ranching profitable nowadays. But countless dry holes had been drilled around the ranch and they had all but given up hope of ever being "rich". The vehicle finally reached the ranch house and a well dressed man in cowboy boots and a Stetson stepped out. "Damn salesman" Bob thought to himself. The man introduced himself as a "land man", working for an oil and gas company. He began to explain to them about a new natural gas discovery in McMullen and LaSalle Counties of Texas. The Eagle Ford Shale, he explained, lies beneath their ranch and he was there to make a deal. The Eagle Ford shale had long been known about by geologists. The thick zone of bluish colored rock lies just below the Edwards formation at around 11,000 to 12,000 feet deep. It had been drilled through countless times and deemed unproductive because, even though there was natural gas in it, there was not enough fracturing or porosity in the rock to allow gas to escape in meaningful quantities, especially in a vertical well bore.
What changed the whole ballgame is a relatively new technology called horizontal or directional drilling that can expose a long profile of the rock and allow gas to escape. Shales like the Eagle Ford including the Barnett Shale are now economically viable because of directional drilling. The Barnett Shale near Fort Worth has brought billions of dollars of revenue to the area.
Now the Williams, and many other ranchers in this desolate area may very well be sitting on the next Barnett Shale.
The Eagle Ford shale is a very widespread formation. In Maverick County, some 100 miles from McMullen County, it produces oil and wells have been drilled in DeWitt county, ninety miles in the opposite direction which are producing gas. TXCO Resources has drilled two oil producing wells in Maverick County and plans to release results in the new year. In McMullen county and LaSalle county Petrohawk Resources has drilled two gas wells so far and completed one with good results in the old South Texas Syndicate field.
Now a quiet gold rush is going on. Land men are now scouring McMullen and LaSalle counties trying to buy up leases from ranchers before the competition. It is a quiet gold rush, because just a couple of months ago nobody in these counties had even heard of the Eagle Ford shale. Now as ranchers gather in places like Max's Cafe, in Tilden Texas there is talk about a new gas play in the area.
When major drilling begins depends on the price of natural gas. The current low price of natural gas has not stopped oil and gas companies from buying up leases now though.
For more on the Eagle Ford Shale formation and a map see this site: http://energyindustryphotos.com/eagle_ford_shale__formation_of_s.htm