The Eagle Ford Shale rig count increased by one to 261 rigs running across our coverage area by the end of last week.
In recent Eagle Ford news, oil prices have plummeted 40% in the last six months, and that’s putting the kibosh on some new drilling across North American shale plays.
According to DrillingInfo.com, applications for new drilling permits in South Texas’ Eagle Ford Shale and North Dakota’s and Montana’s Bakken Shale fell approximately 30% in November of 2014 compared to the previous month. However, the Texas Railroad Commission reports a whopping 4,891 new drilling and re-enter permits in the Eagle Ford from Jan. – Oct. of this year, already surpassing the total for new drilling and re-enter permits in 2013 of 4,416.
Read more: Eagle Ford and Bakken Drilling Permits Fall 30%
The U.S. rig count decreased by 18 to 1,875 rigs running by the end of last week. A total of 338 rigs were targeting natural gas (down 8 from the previous week) and 1,536 were targeting oil in the U.S. (ten less than the previous week). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.).868 or ~48% of rigs active in the U.S. were 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 (206 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 increased by two to 16 rigs running by the end of last week. Natural gas prices decreased by $.60 from the previous week at $3.14/mmbtu on Friday afternoon.
The oil rig count increased by three to 245 rigs running by the end of last week. WTI oil prices decreased by ~$200 from the previous week, trading at $55.98/bbl on Friday afternoon. Eagle Ford light crude traded at $53.00/bbl on December 19th.
A total of 247 rigs are drilling horizontal wells, six rigs are drilling directional wells, and eight rigs are drilling vertical wells. Karnes, Dimmit, and DeWitt each have at minimum 27 rigs running. Dimmit County has the highest rig count this week at 36. See the full list below in the Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by County below
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
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.