Doggett Makes $30 Million in Acquisitions to Expand in the Eagle Ford

Doggett Group Construction Equipment
Doggett Group Construction Equipment

Doggett acquired truck dealerships in Laredo, McAllen, and San Antonio in December. The deals create a network of dealerships that span the region and expand the company's influence in the South Texas Eagle Ford oil boom.

Doggett spent $30 million to acquire three Freightliner and one Western Star Trucking dealership.

Doggett Trucking Group acquired the dealerships from Opus Kane Truck Group and one from Eddy Vaughn Freightliner.

Prior to the deals, the company had almost 25 dealerships selling John Deere and Toyota Industrial Equipment across the Gulf Coast region.

Booming Trucking Industry in South Texas

The acquisitions complement the company's John Deere and Toyota Industrial Equipment dealerships across the region. Doggett has seen the equipment boom first hand and knows the trucking industry is flourishing as well.

Trucks are used to move equipment, supply oilfield development, move operational fluids, and transport oil. On this site alone, we've seen dozens of open driving jobs and thousands of applicants. The trucking industry has probably brought thousands of people to South Texas on its own. It's no surprise the company sees this portion of the industry as an area of growth.

The acquisition does just provide sales centers. The locations also provide additional service centers. It will be interesting to see if the dealerships acquired begin to offer services for the equipment Doggett sells as well.

Read more about the Doggett deals at Fuelfix.com

Sanchez Energy Expects Eagle Ford Development Spending to Near $600 Million

Sanchez Energy Eagle Ford Map Jan 2014
Sanchez Energy Eagle Ford Map Jan 2014

Sanchez Energy has set its capital budget for 2014 at $650-700 million.

Approximately 95% ($617-665 million) will be spent on drilling and completing wells and 90% of that ($556-599 million) will be spent in the Eagle Ford.

Sanchez expects to double production in 2014 and average 21,000-23,000 boe/d.

“All of our core Eagle Ford positions are performing at or above our expectations and are in full scale development mode. We made tremendous strides last year strategically and operationally.”
— Tony Sanchez III, President and Chief Executive Officer

Sanchez acquired Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS) acreage in 2013, but the play is not expected to materially contribute to the company's bottom line in 2014. Sanchez will spend approximately $65 million drilling exploration wells in the TMS this year.

Read the full press release at sanchezenergycorp.com

U.S. Headed For Energy Self-Sufficiency - Exxon CEO

Exxon Mobil's CEO Rex Tillerson believes the U.S. will be self sufficient and energy secure by 2020. The country is the largest natural gas producer in the world and is producing oil at rates not seen since the 1980s. Production of crude oil is expected to continue growing over the next few years and Tillerson thinks it's "realistic" that the U.S. will be secure in energy by the end of the decade. 

Tillerson discusses the difficulty of developing shale gas reserves in China. There is a lot of potential, but the formations are deeper and in more remote locations. There are a number of challenges that will delay development.

He also touches on unknown fiscal policy and how the uncertainty might be hurting economic growth here at home.

Eagle Ford Deal Value Leads the U.S. in 2013

Devon Energy Eagle Ford Acreage Map
Devon Energy Eagle Ford Acreage Map

Eagle Ford deal value led a down year for upstream exploration and production deals in the U.S. with almost $9 billion in activity in 2013.

A record was set in 2012 with almost $90 billion in mergers and acquisitions. The value of deals fell more than 42% to ~$52 billion in 2013. Worldwide total deal value fell from $271 billion in 2012 to $138 billion in 2013.

Of the almost $9 billion spent in the Eagle Ford, almost two-thirds was contributed by one deal - Devon Energy Acquiring Eagle Ford Assets From GeoSouthern for $6 Billion. Add oilfield service & pipeline deals and the Eagle Ford accounted for much more than $9 billion in activity.

You can read more on deals with regional relevance in 2013 by following the links below:

First Quarter 2013

Second Quarter 2013

Third Quarter 2013

Fourth Quarter 2013

Read the full PLS upstream deal activity report at plsx.com also find a full list of Eagle Ford Deals here.

Baker Hughes Reports Record Eagle Ford Well Spuds in Q4

Eagle Ford Well Spuds Q4 2013
Eagle Ford Well Spuds Q4 2013

Baker Hughes reported a record number of Eagle Ford well starts in the fourth quarter of 2014. The company's quarterly report shows ~1,171 wells were started over the three month period.

Rigs also drilled 0.5 wells more in the quarter than they did in the third quarter of 2013. That's an improvement of 40% or 1.5 more wells per quarter per rig than the industry was capable of in early 2012.

We consider the Baker Hughes well start estimate conservative since the company only considers a 14 county area in its Eagle Ford statistics. The numbers reported ignore areas like Brazos County where Eagle Ford activity is increasing.

Also Read -Eagle Ford Record Set for Well Spuds in Q3 (now a broken record)

By adding in the non-core Eagle Ford counties, well spuds easily eclipsed 1,200 wells in the fourth quarter.

Even though we reported this in the third quarter, it's also the first quarter in which well spuds eclipsed 1,100 in the 14-county area. The Baker Hughes reported well spuds were revised down in the third quarter from 1,131 to 1,096.

Read more:Did You Know Drilling Starts On Over 1,000 Eagle Ford Wells Each Quarter?

Watch for this record to be broken throughout 2014 if oil prices hold in the $90/bbl or higher range.