South Texas Drilling Permit Roundup: Local driller picks up speed in the Eagle Ford

By Jessica Corso, San Antonio Business Journal – San Antonio-based Ageron Energy LLC submitted three drilling permits last week, putting it on pace to beat its 2018 record for new wells.

The Railroad Commission of Texas permitted Ageron to drill three oil or gas wells on a lease in Frio County. The horizontal wells will be on the Briscoe Ranch field, which is 14 miles southwest of Dilley.

The new permits put Ageron’s total at eight this year, which is the same number it submitted for all of 2018. Ageron has 22 permits filed with the Railroad Commission dating back to 2015, the same year it changed its name from US Enercorp Ltd.

The predecessor company was founded in 1994 and has been led by Bruce Gates, a petroleum geologist who began his career in the 1980s at independent driller Bright & Co. in Lewisville.

Ageron’s operations are focused in the Eagle Ford counties of Dimmit, Frio, Karnes and Zavala. The company has an office in Oak Park.

South Texas Drilling Permit Roundup

The South Texas Drilling Permit Roundup is a weekly review of new drilling permit applications filed with the Railroad Commission of Texas for a 67-county area of South Texas. For the full drilling data table, see below.

Date Range: Sept. 16 to 22

New Permit Applications: 61

Companies Filing: 16

Most Active Company: Encana Oil & Gas USA Inc. with 10 applications

Most Active County: Karnes County with 18 applications

New and Noteworthy:

Houston-based Plains All American Pipeline LP [NYSE: PAA] is drilling a cathodic well in Nueces County. Plains recently completed its Cactus II line running from West Texas’ Permian Basin to Corpus Christi. Last month, San Antonio-based Nustar Energy LP [NYSE: NS] became the first company to receive shipments via the new line. Corpus is the seat of Nueces County, although the cathodic well will be drilled 10 miles south of Robstown.

The far southern county of Brooks makes a rare appearance on the drilling permit roundup this week. Beeville-based Dan A. Hughes Co., which was previously featured in the permit roundup after filing its first 2019 application in May, was approved to drill a new gas well 27 miles south of county seat Falfurrias. The permit marks the 14th so far this year in Brooks County, which saw 36 drilling permits filed from 2017 to 2018.