Faded Texas Oil Field Offers Austerity Lesson for U.S. Shale

  • Eagle Ford profited for first time in ‘19 by throttling output
  • Shale oil production set to slow down ‘massively’: IHS analyst

A natural gas well being drilled in the Eagle Ford shale in Karnes County, Texas.

Photographer: Eddie Seal/Bloomberg
Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

At EOG Resources Inc.’s Francisco lease in the heart of the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas, a half dozen cows laze in the shade of a tree next to black oil-storage tanks. A small flare burns atop a steel pylon, like a memorial to the boom days gone by.

There are six wells on the parcel of land -- three drilled in 2013 and three from 2016 -- and together they churn out just 130 barrels of crude daily, worth about $7,150 at current prices, according to data from ShaleProfile Analytics. Output is down more than 95% from peak levels, the data show.