The Eagle Ford Shale drilling rig count jumped 6 rigs to 269 rigs active in the region. That's a record for the area with four more rigs than the 265 rig record we set in January. Even with operators cutting back capital budgets across the board, this shouldn't be the peak for rigs in the region. If oil prices simply stay in the same range, we'll likely see 10-20 more rigs enter the play over the next six months.
Eagle Ford Oil & Gas Rigs
The natural gas rig count fell 4 to 74 this week. We're now at the lowest gas rig count seen in the region in over a year. Many of the rigs in the area have simply been reclassified or moved to more oily portions of the play. The oil rig count jumped 11 rigs to offset the drop in gas rigs and drive us through the modern record. We now have 195 oil rigs working. That is 10 rigs above the previous oil rig count record in the play.
Commodity prices didn't move too much on the week. Natural gas traded around $2.50/mmbtu this week and oil fell a couple of dollars to $106 per barrel (WTI) at the end of the week. $100 plus oil prices are very attractive for Eagle Ford operators and is why we're confident this isn't the last record.
Horizontal wells account for activity from 251 rigs and we have no service wells being drilled. Karnes County took the drilling lead back with an increase of three rigs (41). La Salle (40),Webb (33), Gonzales (28), DeWitt (27), McMullen (21), Dimmit (17), and Live Oak (9) make up the top Eagle Ford counties.
The major news of the week was from a group led by Apollo Announcing Plans to Buy El Paso's E&P unit for $7.15 Billion. The end of the week was capped by the Eagle Ford Consortium's first meeting and other news included:
Devorah Fox also contributed an article on Personal Safety in the Eagle Ford Shale Oilfield. If you are operating in the area, it is a good refresher.
If you're traveling to San Antonio soon, be sure to visit our Eagle Ford Hotels page. We've negotiated discounted rates with hotels that are welcoming the Oil & Gas Industry.
Come back weekly for updates on the South Texas drilling rig count.
Drilling Rig Count by Operator
What is the Rig Count?
The Eagle Ford Shale Rig Count is an index of the total number of oil & gas drilling rigs running across a 30 county area in South Texas. The South Texas rigs referred to in this article are for ALL drilling reported by SmithBits and not solely wells targeting the Eagle Ford formation. All land rigs and onshore rig data shown here are based upon industry estimates provided by the Baker Hughes Rig Count and/or Smith Service Co's (Schlumberger) Smith Rig Count.
Drilling Rigs by County
