The Eagle Ford Shale rig count increased by three to 268 rigs running across our coverage area by the end of last week.
In recent Eagle Ford news, JPMorgan Chase & Co. settled a lawsuit by a group of Texas mineral rights owners in the Eagle Ford Shale.
The lawsuit alleged JP Morgan, as trustee of the South Texas Syndicate (STS) Trust, cheated beneficiaries out of millions of dollars through its’ mis-management of the trust’s oil & gas interests.
Read more: JPMorgan Settles Eagle Ford Shale Case
The U.S. rig count increased by one to 1,929 rigs running by the end of last week. A total of 355 rigs were targeting natural gas (five more than the previous week) and 1,574 were targeting oil in the U.S. (four less than the previous week). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.). 906 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 (209 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 one to 16 rigs running by the end of last week. Average rig counts for natural gas production in 2012 were around 80 and then dropped to around 40 in 2013. Natural gas prices stayed flat from the previous week at $4.05/mmbtu on Friday afternoon.
The oil rig count increased by four to 252 rigs running by the end of last week. WTI oil prices increased by ~$.40 from the previous week, trading at $76.35/bbl on Friday afternoon. Eagle Ford light crude traded at $73.00/bbl on November 21st.
A total of 251 rigs are drilling horizontal wells, seven rigs are drilling directional wells, and 10 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 37. See the full list below in the Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by County below
South Texas Oil & Gas News:
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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.