The Eagle Ford Shale rig count increased by seven to 268 rigs running over the past week.
In recent Eagle Ford news, Memorial Production Partners announced this month that it purchased Eagle Ford assets from Alta Mesa Holdings for $173 million. The deal includes 15,200 (800 net) acres in Karnes County, with 99-percent of the assets already held by production. According to company officials, Memorial will gain an interest in 117 non-operated wells, with average net production of 1,650 boe/d. Approximately 80-percent of current production is oil.
Read more: Memorial Production Partners Buys Eagle Ford Assets in $173 Million Deal
The U.S. rig count increased by six to 1809 rigs running over the past week. A total of 318 rigs are targeting natural gas (8 less than last week) and 1,487 are targeting oil in the U.S. (14 more than last week). The remainder are drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.). 866or ~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 (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
The natural gas rig count decreased by 5 to 19 rigs 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 prices stayed relatively flat at $4.49/mmbtu on Friday afternoon.
The oil rig count increased by 12 to 249 rigs running over the past week. WTI oil prices increased, trading at $101.55/bbl by the end of the week. Eagle Ford light crude traded at $98.25/bbl on March 28th.
A total of 229 rigs are drilling horizontal wells, 22 rigs are drilling directional wells, and 17 rigs are drilling vertical wells. Karnes, La Salle, Dimmit, McMullen and Webb counties each have at minimum 25 rigs running. Karnes County has the highest rig count this week at 34. See the full list below in the Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by County:
South Texas Oil & Gas News:
- New Standard Energy Completes Drilling Operations on its First Eagle Ford Wells
- Swift Energy Reveals Initial Production Rates for Six Eagle Ford Test Wells
- BP Creates New Business to Maximize Efficiencies in the Eagle Ford
- Memorial Production Partners Buys Eagle Ford Assets in $173 Million Deal
- Lucas Energy Farms Out Eagle Ford Acreage for $1 Million
Be sure to visit our South Texas Oilfield Job Listings to search openings and come back weekly for updates.
Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by Count
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.