The Eagle Ford Shale rig count held flat at 261 running this past week. Don't expect fourth quarter budgets to allow for big changes in rig activity. We're in the home stretch of the year and the major activity changes are likely on the shelf until 2014.

We heard more in regard the Cheniere Energy's Corpus Christi Liquefaction Project. The company has received a construction contract from Bechtel that pegs the cost of the proposed facility somewhere north of $11 billion. Expect a final investment decision from Cheniere late in 2014. Read the full story: Cheniere Energy's Corpus Christi LNG Plant will cost $12 billion

The U.S. rig count increased 8 rigs from 1,754 to 1,762 running over the past week. A total of 370 rigs are targeting natural gas (5 more than last week) and 1,385 (2 more than last week) are targeting oil in the U.S. The remainder are drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.). 825 or 47% of rigs active in the U.S. 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 (223 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 one to 29 rigs running over the past week. That's the first time the natural gas rig count has fallen below 30 since back in the spring. If our sources are correct and natural gas prices head higher this winter, November might be the last time you see the count that low. Natural gas prices were up about ten cents during the week and were trading around $3.65/mmbtu on Friday.

The oil rig count held flat at 230. WTI oil prices were trading around $94/bbl to end the week. Eagle Ford light crude traded at $90.25/bbl on Nov 14th.

A total of 227 rigs are drilling horizontal wells, 18 rigs are drilling directional wells, and 16 rigs are drilling true vertical wells. Karnes, DeWitt, La Salle, Gonzales, McMullen and Webb counties all have between 25 and 29 rigs running. See the full list of drilling by county below.

South Texas Oil & Gas News:

• ZaZa Energy Signs Eagle Ford JV in DeWitt County
• Cheniere Energy's Port of Corpus Christi LNG Plant Will Cost $12 Billion
• Energy Transfer to Convert Pipeline to Supply Trafigura in Corpus Christi
• Eagle Ford Helps Anadarko Reach Record Onshore Production
• Blog Contribution - Don't Let Eagle Ford Truck Drivers Get Put "Out of Service"

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.