Oil & Gas Jobs in South Texas Are Abundant

S. TX Expo Event Registration Line

Oil and gas jobs in South Texas are abundant. From gate guards to industry sales reps and engineers, there's a flood of new people running the roads of South Texas and more open positions than companies can find qualified people for. The Eagle Ford Shale oil boom has added oil and gas jobs in South Texas at a rate no one could have predicted.

Pioneer Natural Resources, an Irving, Texas-based driller, has hired 400 people in the South Texas area in the last two years, says Joey Hall, vice president in charge of Pioneer's South Texas Asset Team.

About 75% or a little more of Pioneer's workers are located in the field and contractors employ another 1,000 people who help build rigs and move crude.

The story is similar for Conoco who added more than 500 jobs between its Texas plays and North Dakota's Bakken Shale. Over 50% of Conoco's hires were engineers, but most jobs in the field don't require a college degree.

About 15% of the 54,000 new jobs expected in the Eagle Ford shale by 2021 will require a college degree, and a little more than 10% will require direct experience in the energy business, Tunstall said.

Read more in an article from South Carolina's wltx.com.

Pioneer's Barnett Shale Assets Will Be Sold to Fund Eagle Ford Development

PXD Barnett Combo Map

Pioneer Natural Resources plans to sell 155,000 gross acres in the Barnett Shale to fund development in the its West Texas Permian Basin and South Texas Eagle Ford Shale properties. Approximately two-thirds of the company's Barnett acres are deemed "Barnett Combo" acres that are prospective for liquids-rich shale gas.

Pioneer's current production is 7,000 boe/d with 55% attributed to oil/NGLs and 45% attributed to natural gas.

“The sale of our Barnett Shale properties will allow us to strategically reallocate capital to our higher-return, core assets in the Spraberry vertical play, the horizontal Wolfcamp Shale play and the Eagle Ford Shale. We plan to utilize the net proceeds from the divestiture to reduce indebtedness under Pioneer's credit facility.”

The data room will open in October and Pioneer plans to close the transaction in Q1 of 2013.

Read the full press release at pxd.com

Pioneer Cuts Back Eagle Ford Dry Gas Drilling Again

Pioneer Eagle Ford Update Map

Pioneer Natural Resources is cutting back its dry-gas development plans in the Eagle Ford from 15% to just 10% of its budgeted activity. Gas drilling is only going forward at this level to secure leases for when gas prices improve.

The company reported earnings for the second quarter at the end of July and is right on target to meet expectations for the year in South Texas. Highlights from the quarter include:

• Drilled 34 wells and brought 37 to production
• Added three central gathering plants to reach a total of 11 in operation
• Lowered dry-gas activity from 15% to 10% of wells budgeted. Gas drilling is only being utilized to hold acreage by production
• Expanding the use of White Sand into gas well completions ($700,000 savings)

Pioneer produced approximately 23,000 boe/d in the first quarter, 24,000 boe/d in the second quarter and has provided guidance of 25,000-29,000 boe/d for 2012. Expect the company to realize its biggest production increases in the second half of the year.

Read more about the company's position at our Pioneer Eagle Ford page.

Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD) Grows Eagle Ford Production 15% in Q1

Pioneer Natural Resources continues its focus on lower costs and further improving its Eagle Ford assets.  Along the way, the company grew Eagle Ford production 15% quarter over quarter from 20,000 boe/d to 23,000 boe/d.  Current expectations are for more than 50,000 boe/d in 2014. Pioneer reported that results continue to hold up on the 45 wells where white sand was used instead of ceramic proppant in completions. The company tested white sand in more shallow areas of the play and has recognized a cost savings of $700,000 per well. If production results hold up, we might see a more significant shift to the use of white sand.

The company has 10 wells waiting to be completed and plans to bring online 125 wells this year. With 26 brought online in the first quarter, we'll see an increase to more than 30 wells per quarter over the remainder of the year.

You can read more quarterly commentary at our Pioneer Eagle Ford page.

Pioneer Reports Year-End Eagle Ford Shale Reserves of 70 mmboe

Pioneer Natural Resource's Eagle Ford Shale reserves grew to 70 million barrels at the end of 2011. Pioneer's core assets cut through the condensate rich window of the Eagle Ford in DeWitt, Karnes, and Live Oak counties. For the entire company, Pioneer added 149 mmboe of proved reserves, which replaced 313% of the company's 49 mmboe of production in 2011. Management attributed the strong performance to the Sprayberry field (West Texas), the Barnett Combo (North of Fort Worth), and the South Texas Eagle Ford. 

The Eagle Ford accounts for less than 10% of Pioneer's proved reserves, but that will change dramatically in the next few years as the company is able to prove reserves from land not yet drilled.