Eagle Ford Shale business boom in deep South Texas

SOUTH TEXAS – The Eagle Ford Shale is bringing a lot of new jobs and businesses to deep South Texas. New hotels, restaurants, stores and various chains are coming to small towns on rural highways like Carrizo Springs, Cotulla and Tilden.

The region has the lowest unemployment rate in the State of Texas at 3 percent; everyone who wants a job has one, but to fill the rest workers are imported from the Rio Grande Valley and other regions.

The oil boom has created a "ripple effect" in Cotulla where new hotels, restaurants and businesses are springing up like weeds, according to La Salle County Judge Joel Rodriguez.

La Salle County had a total property tax base of $200 million dollars in 2008 but today it’s at $7.9 billion thanks to the boom. The county is using the money to invest in improving the water infrastructure and rural highways.

With new drilling permits still being issued by the Texas Railroad Commission, the boom is showing no signs of slowing down.

The Eagle Ford Shale oil boom is expensive and requires a lot of water in an arid area, according to Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, a professor at the University of Texas-Brownsville. The expense of providing water to the oil fields usually falls on the shoulders of the government.

The oil boom must be able to last at ten years or more to be beneficial, “otherwise, it will just benefit speculators and Wall Street," said Correa-Cabrera.