South Texas Drilling Permit Roundup: EOG, Burlington Resources file 16 new Eagle Ford drilling permits

The South Texas Drilling Permit Roundup provides a weekly overview of all new drilling permits filed with the Railroad Commission of Texas.

EOG Resources Inc., based in Houston (NYSE EOG), and Burlington Resources O&G CO LP (a part of Houston-based ConocoPhillips NYSE: COP) are continuing to be hot sellers in the Eagle Ford Shale.

EOG and Burlington each filed eight new drilling permits last week in the region south Bexar County. This includes La Salle County, Webb County, Live Oak County and De Witt County.

EOG plans to drill up to eight new wells within the counties of La Salle and Webb. The La Salle County wells are located 8.8 mile north of Fowlerton, and will have a completion depth of 10,500 feet. EOG plans to have one of its Webb County oil wells located 22.3 mile northwest of Laredo with a completion of 11,000 feet. Two other Webb County wells are located 19 miles north of Laredo, with estimated completion depths of between 14,000 to 15,000 feet.

Total depth is the total length of the pipeline needed to connect the horizontal and vertical sections of the well.

Burlington Resources has filed applications for half of its new oil-wells in De Witt County, and the other half in Live Oak County. Burlington Resources' De Witt County wells are located 2.2 mile northwest of Gruneau and will have completion depths up to 17,000 feet. Live Oak Wells, located 19.9 mile north of Three Rivers and with completion depths 17,000 feet, will be operated by the company.

BPX Operating Co. (part of London-based BP PLC, NYSE: BP) was the next most active operator in last week's report. It filed five new applications for wells in Karnes County and McMullen County. BPX filed four horizontal drilling permits in Karnes County (about a mile south of Helena) and two horizontal drilling permits in McMullen County (about 4.5 miles south of Tilden). The drills all have completion depths between 14,000 and 15,000 feet. Drills are being mapped.

South Texas Drilling Permit Roundup

Date range: May 8 to May 15

New Permit Applications: 47

Companies Filing: 19

Callon Petroleum Co., based in Houston (NYSE: CPE), is selling its Eagle Ford operation, known as Callon LLC, a Houston upstream oil company, to Ridgemar Energy Operating LLC.

The deal, worth $655 million in cash, was announced this month. It is expected to be completed by July. Callon stated in a release that this acquisition and sale will allow the company's focus to be on its 145,000 net acres of land in the Permian basin, where they are also buying assets.