Way back in 2015, the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas was big news, duking it out with the Permian and the offshore Gulf of Mexico for the #1 spot in crude oil production and with the then-preeminent Haynesville for top honors in natural gas output. But the mid-decade crash in oil and gas prices hit the Eagle Ford harder than any other U.S. production area — in fact, production there remains below its peak seven years ago. Lately, however, M&A activity in the shale play has been surging, suggesting that the Eagle Ford may finally be on the verge of a serious, sustained comeback. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss this renewed interest in South Texas and whether this time the play’s recovery is for real.
Canadian crude output is rising, requiring new export routes. As traditional pathways face constraints, the U.S. Rockies—especially the Guernsey, WY hub—are emerging as key corridors for moving Canadian heavy crude to downstream markets, including the Gulf Coast.
We picked “Come Back Song” for today’s title in part because Darius Rucker, who co-wrote the tune and made it a #1 hit on the country music charts in 2010, reminds us of the Eagle Ford Shale. Rucker started off his career with a bang — as lead singer of Hootie & the Blowfish, he and his soft-rock band’s debut album, Cracked Rear View, was the #1-selling LP of 1995 (and one of the best-selling albums of all time) and the next year, Hootie & the Blowfish won Grammys for Best New Artist and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group (for the single “Let Her Cry”). But after a period of commercial success, the band and Rucker himself faded from view. By 2008, though, Rucker had re-invented himself as a country music singer and become the first African-American soloist to chart a #1 country hit since Charley Pride in the early 1980s. In 2009, Rucker won the Country Music Association’s New Artist of the Year award, and he’s won a handful of Grammy and ACM awards since then.
The Eagle Ford Shale has had a similar trajectory: a quick rise to the top, followed by a long lull and now, at long last, the prospect of a return to the big time. As shown in the graphs in Figure 1 — and as chronicled in a number of our blogs — drilling activity and production in South Texas really took off in the early 2010s as producers “cracked the code” for using horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing in the play’s five production “windows”: dry gas, wet gas, condensate, volatile oil and black oil. By 2015, crude oil production in South Texas (about half of it light oil and half superlight condensate) had topped 1.7 MMb/d and gas production was north of 7 Bcf/d (right-most point of lines in Figure 1).
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About the song
“Come Back Song” was written by Darius Rucker, Casey Beathard and Chris Stapleton. It appears as the second song on Darius Rucker’s third studio album, Charleston, SC 1966. Released as the first single from the album in July 2010, it went to #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and #37 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart. It has been certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Personnel on the record were: Darius Rucker (lead vocals), Gordon Mote (Wurlitzer electric piano), Michael Rhodes (bass), Pat Buchanon and J. T. Corenflos (slide guitars), Dan Dugmore (steel guitar), Shannon Forrest (drums), Eric Darken (percussion), Ilya Toshinsky (mandolin), Bryan Sutton (acoustic guitar), and Wes Hightower (backing vocals).
Charleston, SC 1966 was the third solo album and the second country music album from Rucker. The album was recorded in early 2010 at Capitol Nashville and produced by Frank Rogers. It was released in October 2010 and went to #1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and #2 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart and has been certified Gold by the RIAA. Three singles were released from the LP.
Darius Rucker is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. He first gained fame as the lead vocalist with the rock band Hootie & the Blowfish, which he founded with Mark Bryan, Jim Sonefeld, and Dean Felber in 1986 while all were students at the University of South Carolina. He released five studio albums and had six Top 40 hits while with the band. In 2002 he released his first solo R&B album. Starting in 2008, Rucker has focused on country music. With the release of his first country music single “Don’t Think I Don't Think About It” in 2008, he became the first black country music artist to have a #1 single since Charley Pride in 1983. As a solo artist, he has released seven studio albums, one compilation album and 20 singles. Rucker has won three Grammy Awards and two CMA Awards. He still records and tours. Hootie & the Blowfish still occasionally perform live with Rucker, and put on the annual Hootie Fest, with the next one to be held in Cancun, Mexico, in April 2023.
