The Eagle Ford Shale rig count decreased by 14 to 174 rigs running across our coverage by midday Friday.

In recent Eagle Ford news, Swift Energy reported a net loss for the fourth quarter of 2014 of $10.9 million, compared to a net income of $4.7 million in the same quarter in 2013. The company anticipates it will slash 2015 spending by an astonishing 70%.

Read more: Swift Energy Plans Massive Cuts

The U.S. rig count fell another 72 to 1192 rigs running as of today. A total of 268 rigs were targeting natural gas (down 12 from the previous week) and 922 were targeting oil in the U.S. (64 less than the previous week). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.).538 of the rigs active in the U.S. were running in Texas.

Baker Hughes reports its own Eagle Ford Rig Count that covers the 14 core counties. 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

Natural gas rigs declined to 22 rigs by midday. Natural gas prices decreased by $.12 from the previous week at $2.82/mmbtu on Friday afternoon.

The oil rig count declined by 14 to 172 rigs running by midday. WTI oil prices decreased by $1.32 from the previous week, trading at $49.18/bbl on Friday afternoon.  A total of 160 rigs are drilling horizontal wells, three rigs are drilling directional wells, and vertical rigs lost one for a total of 11.  Karnes (31), DeWitt (19), and Dimmit (18) have the highest rig counts this week. See the full list below in the Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by County below.

Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by County

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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.