Eagle Ford Shale Rig Count Reaches 70

February 12, 2017 Elizabeth Alford

The Eagle Ford Shale rig count jumped by two this week, with our data showing 70 rigs running across our coverage area by midday Friday.

In recent Eagle Ford news, the Texas Railroad Commission (RRC) is gearing up for increased oil and gas drilling throughout 2017.

A total of 740 oil and gas rigs were running across the United States this week, a gain of 12 over last week. 149 rigs targeted natural gas (4 more than the previous week) and 591 were targeting oil in the U.S. (eight more than the previous week). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.) 362 of the rigs active in the U.S. were running in Texas.

Baker Hughes reports its own Eagle Ford Rig Count that covers the 14 core counties. The rig count published on EagleFordShale.com includes a 30 county area impacted by Eagle Ford development. A full list of the counties included can be found in the table below.

Eagle Ford Oil & Gas Rigs

Six rigs in the Eagle Ford region targeted natural gas this week with the commodity trading at $3.03/mmbtu.

64 Eagle Ford rigs were targeting oil with WTI oil prices increasing slightly to $53.86.

A total of 64 rigs are drilling horizontal wells, two are drilling directional wells and four are vertical.

Karnes County leads this week with 15 rigs in production. See the full list below in the Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by County below.

Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by County

Eagle Ford Shale News

EnerVest Shifts from Barnett to Eagle Ford

Halcón Resources Exits the Eagle Ford

R RC Prepares for More Texas Drilling

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 Baker Hughes 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.

RRC Prepares for More Oil and Gas Drilling

February 6, 2017 Elizabeth Alford

The Texas Railroad Commission (RRC) is gearing up for increased oil and gas drilling throughout 2017.

Chairman Christi Craddick spent some time in Dallas last week, discussing the state’s oil and gas outlook for 2017 with leaders of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Craddick says she is optimistic about the industry, but is aware the agency needs to be prepared for growth.

“We know from previous downturns that when the oil and gas industry ramps up, it ramps up quickly,” Craddick said. “We must be fully staffed and prepared for an uptick in industry activity. I am optimistic about oil and gas production growth in Texas this year, but look forward to seeing a continued rise in permitting and new drilling reports before we expect a significant shift within the industry. Until then, we will continue to move resources planned for permitting to other areas of the agency as needed.”

Craddick went on to affirm the importance of the agencies role in providing for public safety, explained that oil and gas production accounts for more than 30% of our state’s overall economy.

The Railroad Commission of Texas will be presenting its 2018-19 biennium budget request to legislators as they meet for the 85th Legislative Session. Though the agency is funded mostly by oil and gas activity, Craddick is looking for ways to augment the falling revenue, which has taken a toll on the agency’s personnel department. She said the agency’s number of employees drop from 1500 in the 1990’s to 690 today. The jobs shortage presents a huge challenge for the agency, because the work still has to be done.

The Eagle Ford Rig Count Climbs to 68

February 3, 2017 Elizabeth Alford

**Eagle Ford Operators Put Rigs Back Online**

The Eagle Ford Shale rig count increased again this week, with our data showing 68 rigs running across our coverage area by midday Friday.

In recent Eagle Ford news, Halcón Resources has announced it will sell its Eagle Ford assets (“El Halcón”) to Hawkwood Energy for $500 million.

A total of 728 oil and gas rigs were running across the United States this week, a gain of 27 over last week. 145 rigs targeted natural gas (the same as the previous week) and 583 were targeting oil in the U.S. (27 more than the previous week). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.) 355 of the rigs active in the U.S. were running in Texas.

Eagle Ford Oil & Gas Rigs

Seven rigs in the Eagle Ford region targeted natural gas this week with the commodity trading at $3.06/mmbtu.

61 Eagle Ford rigs were targeting oil with WTI oil prices increasing slightly to $53.80.

A total of 59 rigs are drilling horizontal wells, two are drilling directional wells and seven are vertical.

Karnes County leads this week with 14 rigs in production. See the full list below in the Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by County below.

Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by County

Eagle Ford Shale News

EnerVest Shifts from Barnett to Eagle Ford

Halcón Resources Exits the Eagle Ford

Eagle Ford Rig Count at 65

RRC Facing Budget Challenges

Swift Energy Cuts 56 Houston Jobs

What is the Rig Count?

EnerVest Shifts from Barnett to Eagle Ford

February 1, 2017 Elizabeth Alford

EnerVest Energy Partners announced today that it is expanding its Eagle Ford Shale holdings and pulling back from the Barnett Shale.

Houston-based EnerVest Energy Partners have closed on an acquisition of Eagle Ford oil and natural gas properties in Karnes County. The $58.7 million includes 5.8 percent working interest in 9,151 gross acre.

Highlights include:

Eagle Ford and Austin Chalk reserves and drilling opportunities
Estimated proved reserves of approximately 6.4 Mmboe and probable reserves of 1.3 Mmboe, net to EVEP (based on recent strip prices)
22 percent proved developed and 61 percent crude
Current net daily production of approximately 1.0 Mboepd (73 percent crude)
Over 200 economic, scalable and repeatable proved and probable horizontal drilling opportunities
Additional possible drilling locations
Attractive drilling economics at current strip prices
Significantly higher margins and higher cash flow from acquired Eagle Ford Shale properties as compared to the divested Barnett Shale properties (based on recent strip prices)

“We believe that this position in the Eagle Ford Shale affords many attractive, self-funding, near-term drilling opportunities and will increase our crude production by approximately 25 percent in 2017.”

— Michael Mercer, EV Energy president and CEO.

EV Energy Partners is a a publicly traded affiliate of Houston’s EnerVest Ltd. Since 2015, EnerVest has been gobbling up acres and assets in the Eagle Ford including:

May 2016
- Purchased 7,056 net acres from BlackBrush Oil and Gas LP
- The assets include 341 drilling locations and produce 5,170 barrels of oil equivalent per day
April 29, 2016
- 4,198 net acres from affiliates of San Antonio-based GulfTex
- 256 drilling locations
- Produce 8,568 barrels of oil equivalent per day
Fall 2015
- $125 million purchase of Houston-based Alta Mesa Holdings LP’s
- 1,760 net acres with 278 drilling locations and 7.8 million barrels of oil equivalent of reserves
- Producing 2,200 barrels of oil equivalent per day

Learn more at evenergypartners.com

Halcón Resources Exits the Eagle Ford

January 30, 2017 Elizabeth Alford

Halcón Resources has announced it will sell its Eagle Ford assets (“El Halcón”) to Hawkwood Energy for $500 million.

The sale should close by early March and will help fund the company’s movement into the Delaware Basin.

Through the deal, Denver-based, Hawkwood will acquire approximately 81,000 net acres primarily located in Burleson and Brazos counties, which are currently are producing approximately 6,000 net boe/d.

“We are excited to acquire these high quality assets to further build our strong position in the East Texas Woodbine and Eagle Ford plays,” said Patrick Oenbring, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hawkwood. “These new assets provide us with expanded opportunities to leverage our low cost operating infrastructure and Eagle Ford and Woodbine technical expertise to create value. We continue to seek additional similar opportunities to acquire quality assets to add to our East Texas position.”

Halcón emerged from bankruptcy last fall, where it was able to eliminate approximately $1.8 billion in debt. Company executives had previously announced they would resume Eagle Ford drilling in 2017 but made a sharp turn recently to move into the Delaware Basin.

This is Hawkwood’s initial investment into the Eagle Ford region of South Texas. The company has focused primarily on its 1110,000 East Texas acres in Brazos, Madison, Leon, and Robertson Counties with 70+ wells.