The Eagle Ford Shale drilling rig count settled at 264 for the week ending August 24th. In the biggest news of the week, Flint Hills Resources announced a $250 million upgrade of its 230,000 b/d West Refinery in Corpus Christi. The refinery currently handles a little more than 100,000 b/d of Eagle Ford crude and the addition of processing facilities will allow the company to accept even more South Texas oil. As many as 1,000 jobs will be required during peak construction. Flint Hills has spent more than $1 billion in the past decade expanding and upgrading the plant and this is the second $200 million dollar expansion in the past five years. Watch a video covering the story in our article Flint Hill Resources Plans $250 Million Refinery Expansion.
Eagle Ford Oil & Gas Rigs
The number of natural gas rigs running fell back to 60, after jumping to 65 last week. McMullen County (9) fell to single digits, while Karnes (12) and Webb (12) held as the only counties with more than 10 gas rigs running. There are 201 oil rigs working, which is up one week over week. One injection well is being drilled in Karnes County and two disposal wells are being drilled. One in Karnes County and one in Leon County.
Henry Hub futures were trading at ~$2.70 on Friday afternoon. That's just a few cents off last week's price. Spot prices held roughly flat as well at $2.79/mmbtu.
WTI was trading at ~$96/bbl Friday afternoon and LLS crude prices stretched above $114/bbl. Oil traded above $98/bbl this week, but gave up gains in the past two days.
There are 245 horizontal rigs running in the region. The three counties leading development are Karnes with 41 rigs, La Salle with 31 and McMullen with 31. Dimmit (29), DeWitt (22), Webb (21), Gonzales (16), Frio (11), Live Oak (10), and Atascosa (8) round out the top Eagle Ford counties.
News items this week included:
- Eagle Ford Gas is Headed For Mexico as the Country Plans Major Expansions
- SM Energy's Operated Eagle Ford Production Eclipsed 200 mmcfe/d in Q2
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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.
Drilling Rigs by County
