The Eagle Ford Shale rig countdecreased by 1 rig from 256 to 255 running this past week. We're in the fourth quarter of the year, so operators who have exhausted budgets are scaling back. We're 10 rigs below the average of 265 that have been running in the region this year.

Baker Hughes released third quarter well spud numbers and to no surprise the Eagle Ford is still setting records. The play saw drilling start on more than 1,100 wells during the quarter in a 14-county area. Add the other counties where there is Eagle Ford activity and that number likely stretches above 1,200 well starts. Read more in the article: Eagle Ford Record Set for Well Spuds

The U.S. rig count decreased 4 rigs from 1,743 to 1,739 running over the past week. A total of 372 rigs are targeting natural gas (3 more than last week) and 1,361 are targeting oil in the U.S. The remainder are drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.). 817 rigs are running in Texas.

Baker Hughes rig count is quoted here. Baker Hughes also releases its own Eagle Ford Rig Count that covers the 14 core counties (221 rigs). 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 near the bottom of this article.

Eagle Ford Oil & Gas Rigs

[ic-l]The natural gas rig count fell by one from 36 to 35 rigs running over the past week. Natural gas prices held steady during the week and were trading around $3.77/mmbtu on the afternoon of Oct 18th.

The oil rig count increased by one rig from 219 to 220. WTI oil prices were trading around $101/bbl on Friday afternoon. Oil prices have been above $100 for 15 weeks, but have come off almost 10% from highs near $110/bbl. Eagle Ford light crude traded at $97.25/bbl on Oct 17th.

A total of 226 rigs are drilling horizontal wells, 18 rigs are drilling directional wells, and 11 rigs are drilling true vertical wells. Karnes, DeWitt, Gonzales, La Salle, and McMullen counties all have between 26-29 rigs running. See the full list of drilling by county below.

South Texas Oil & Gas News:

• Southcross Energy's Eagle Ford Expansion Is Nearing Completion
• Energy Activity Holding at High Levels in Texas
• Goodrich Petroleum Increases 2014 Capital Budget
• Atlas Processing Expecting Full Utilization at Eagle Ford Plants
• Eagle Ford Well Spuds Record Set in Q3

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Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by County

Eagle Ford Operated Rig Count By Company

SmithBits no longer reports its operated rig count, but we'll have updated number for you from a new source soon. Until then, you can reference our numbers from mid-April. There has not been a significant change in the overall rig count since this date:

tWhat 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 and/or Smith Service Co's (Schlumberger) Smith Rig Count.