Eagle Ford Rig Count - 264 - Pioneer's Eagle Ford Budget Set at $545 Million - 2014

The Eagle Ford Shale rig count stayed flat at 264 rigs running over the past week.

In recent news, Pioneer set a record for its fourth-quarter 2013 production in the Eagle Ford Shale, averaging 40,000 boe/d. That’s up ~14% from 35,000 boe/d in the fourth-quarter of 2012. Pioneer plans to spend $545 million in the Eagle Ford in 2014.

The U.S. rig count decreased by 7 to 1,764 running over the past week. A total of 337 rigs are targeting natural gas (14 less than last week) and 1,423 are targeting oil in the U.S. (7 less than last week). The remainder are drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.). 840 or ~48% 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 (216 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 decreased by one rig to 36 running this past week. Average rig counts for natural gas production in 2012 were around 82 and then dropped to around 41 in 2013. Over the past week, natural gas increased to $5.24/mmbtu on Friday afternoon.

The oil rig count increased by 1 to 228 rigs running. WTI oil prices stayed relatively flat, trading at $100.26/bbl by the end of the week. Eagle Ford light crude traded at $97/bbl on February 13th.

A total of 237 rigs are drilling horizontal wells, 18 rigs are drilling directional wells, and 9 rigs are drilling true vertical wells. Karnes, DeWitt, La Salle, Dimmit and McMullen counties each have at minimum 26 rigs running. LaSalle County has the highest rig count this week at 31. See the full list below in the Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by County:

South Texas Oil & Gas News:

Be sure to visit our South Texas Oilfield Job Listings to search openings and come back weekly for updates.

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.