Written By William C. Triplett II

Of the three shale plays that are transforming American onshore oil and gas production, the Eagle Ford in South Texas is perhaps the least well-known outside the industry. Beginning roughly at Laredo on the Mexican border, it runs more or less northeast through 30 Texas counties, ending east of San Antonio. Since the oil field infrastructure demands are so high, the actual impact of the Eagle Ford activity extends south to the Port of Corpus Christi on the Gulf of Mexico and even as far east as Houston, where the oil companies and their suppliers are mostly headquartered. The entire South Texas brush country has been impacted by an unprecedented economic boom.

Union Pacific’s rail line from San Antonio to Corpus Christi runs through family property. About five miles up the track from us, in Pleasanton, Texas, FTS International, usually known as “Frac Tech,” has built a railroad siding to bring in chemicals for its hydraulic fracturing support of Eagle Ford drilling operations. The China Investment Corp., Beijing’s sovereign wealth fund, already owns a substantial piece of Frac Tech. Both the China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) and the China Petroleum Corp. (CPC) are competing with Middle Eastern interests to expand their Frac Tech holdings. With Beijing’s almost unlimited financial resources, it is not impossible that China could soon have a controlling interest in the firm. Access to Frac Tech’s technology would be a “major step towards tapping resources in China and elsewhere,” theWallStreetJournal noted in December.

Driving south on I-37... http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/feb/23/red-dragon-in-north-amer...