© 2024 Texas Public Radio
Real. Reliable. Texas Public Radio.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

The Face Of The Eagle Ford Shale In San Antonio

Joey Palacios
/
TPR

San Antonio is now the hub for providing resources to the Eagle Ford Shale Project. The South Texas Energy and Economic Roundtable opened its doors at the Pearl Brewery this week.

It’s been in existence for about five months, created by the 11 major oil and gas operators working on the shale project including Conoco Phillips and Lewis Energy.

"These operators saw a need to establish a regionally-based trade association that was focused on the oil and gas industry in South Texas," said Omar Garcia, the president and CEO of STEER.

The goal of STEER is to be an advocate for the industry.

Credit STEER
Map of the entire 14-county Eagle Ford Shale area (green) with surrounding counties.

"Connecting the industry with South Texas and to ensure that all the positive things that are happening with this development and this growth remain in the forefront of the constituents in South Texas," Garcia said. "So we’re going to be more of an industry advocate going out there into the communities, holding town hall meetings, educating people on the oil and gas industry."

The 400 mile-long Eagle Ford Shale has active drilling in 14 different counties, starting just east of Bexar and stretching to the border. The boom is having a robust impact on the economies of the counties and cities both in the direct area and those surrounding.

Though all the activity has been called an oil and gas boom, Garcia believes the resource could last about a decade.

"We’ve had people talk about that this could last minimum 15 years and could extend 50 years," he added.  "With technology constantly changing  - we don’t really don’t have a good number – but we know minimum this will last at least 15 years."

It’s predicted that the eagle ford shale project will have an economic impact of about $62.6 billion and create 117,000 jobs by 2021. 

Joey Palacios can be reached atJoey@TPR.org and on Twitter at @Joeycules