Eagle Ford Rig Count Up 1 Again This Week - Feb 17, 2012
The Eagle Ford Shale drilling rig count grew by 1 rig again this week. Activity across the play is resisting sub-$3 natural gas prices and it looks like we'll find out if operator's capital budgets can resist low gas prices as well. EOG Resources increased its reserves estimate to 1.6 Billion barrels and I don't believe they will be slowing down any time soon. It will be interesting to see what happens for the guys producing more natural gas and not benefiting from oil prices across their portfolio. La Salle County dropped two rigs, so we have no counties with more than 40 rigs working. The natural gas rig count was up 2 this week to 81. The entire increase was attributable to Karnes and DeWitt counties where gas wells produce considerable amounts of liquids. The oil rig count fell 1 to 175. Natural gas and oil prices were both up a bit on the week. Gas prices were trading at ~$2.70/mmbtu on Friday and the March WTI oil contract increased to more than $103 per bbl. Horizontal wells account for activity from 237 rigs and we have 1 disposal well being drilling in Leon County (not a core Eagle Ford area).
La Salle County's lead in drilling shrunk to 1 with 38 rigs working. Karnes (37),Webb (34), DeWitt (25), McMullen (23),Gonzales (22), Dimmit (16), and Live Oak (10) make up the top Eagle Ford targeted counties.
It was another busy week for news on the pipeline and midstream side, but EOG's addition of 700 million barrels in potential reserves in the Eagle Ford trumped all other announcements.
News
- Bee County Passed a $9,500 Well Fee For Road Repairs
- Enterprise Plans to Expand the ECHO Oil Terminal
- Energy Transfer is Adding a NGL Fractionation Plant in Mont Belvieu to Handle Eagle Ford Volumes
Operator News
- EOG Proves Down-spacing Potential of 65-acres in the Eagle Ford Oil Window
- Crimson Provided an Update on its Eagle Ford and Eaglebine Operations
- Plains Exploration and Production is Producing More Than 9,000 boe/d
- Talisman Energy Exited 2011 With More than 100 mmcfd of Operated Production
For everyone out there considering all the driving jobs that are paying north of $30 an hour, Devorah Fox of Mike Byrnes & Associates, Inc. contributed an article related to getting a CDL license.
Come back weekly for updates on the South Texas drilling rig count.
Drilling Rig Count by Operator
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 SmithBits 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.