The Eagle Ford Shale rig countincreased by five rigs to 272 running this past week. I suspect high levels of activity and hundred dollar oil mean local events will be popular next week.

There are two big events coming up - DUG Eagle Ford in San Antonio and the South Texas Oilfield Expo in Corpus Christi. Contact Us here and let us know if you plan to attend. We'll stop by your booth to introduce ourselves. We've also written an article to help you maximize the value of your time spent at the events:

5 Tips for Making the Most Out of an Oil & Gas Conference & EXPO

The U.S. rig count increased 1 rig to 1,768 running this past week. A total of 401 rigs are targeting natural gas and 1,361 are targeting oil in the U.S. The remainder are drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.). This week marks the first time the natural gas rig count has been above 400 since March. 850 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 (~234 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 held flat at 43 rigs. Natural gas futures were trading around $3.70/mmbtu on Friday afternoon. That's up 5% over last week.

The oil rig count increased by five rigs to settle at 228 running in the region. WTI oil prices were trading near $108/bbl. Prices were down on news Syria might hand over chemical weapons, but held near highs.  Oil prices have held above $100/bbl for ten weeks straight. Eagle Ford light crude traded at $105/bbl on Sept 12th.

A total of 224 rigs are drilling horizontal wells, 32 rigs are drilling directional wells, and 16 rigs are drilling true vertical wells. Karnes and McMullen counties lead development with 38 and 34 rigs running, respectively. See the full list of drilling by county below.

South Texas Oil & Gas News:

• Corpus Christi City Worker Shortage Caused by the Eagle Ford
• Marathon Oil Acquires 4,800 Eagle Ford Acres - $97 Million
• Calfrac Acquires Eagle Ford Assets With Mission Well Services Acquisition - $147 Million
• Sanchez Energy Adds Eagle Ford Acreage for $220 Million
• 5 Tips for Oil & Gas Conference Attendees

Be sure to visit our South Texas Oilfield Job Listings to search openings and come back weekly for updates or sign up for alerts - Daily or Weekly Email Alerts

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:

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