The Eagle Ford Shale rig count decreased by five to 261 rigs running across our coverage area by the end of last week.

In recent news, The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) predicts the Eagle Ford Shale will produce 1.51-million b/d crude oil in September 2014. That’s an increase of ~31,000b/d over August’s expected production (1.48-million b/d), according to the EIA’s monthly Drilling Productivity Report released this week.

Read more: EIA: Eagle Ford Oil Production Will Hit 1.5-Million b/d - Sept. 2014

The U.S. rig count increased by five to 1,913 rigs running by the end of last week. A total of 321 rigs were targeting natural gas (five more than the previous week) and 1,589 were targeting oil in the U.S. (one more than the previous week). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.). 901 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 (199 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 increased by one to ten 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 decreased slightly from the previous week to $3.77/mmbtu on Friday afternoon.

The oil rig count decreased by six to 251 rigs running by the end of last week. WTI oil prices stayed relatively flat from the previous week, trading at $97.09/bbl on Friday afternoon. Eagle Ford light crude traded at $92.00/bbl on August 14th.

A total of 247 rigs are drilling horizontal wells, four rigs are drilling directional wells, and ten rigs are drilling vertical wells. Karnes, La Salle, De Witt, and Webb each have at minimum 25 rigs running. Karnes County has the highest rig count this week at 34. See the full list below in the Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by County below

South Texas Oil & Gas News:

• EVEP & EnerVest Agree to Sell Certain Eagle Ford Assets
• Eagle Ford's Sanchez Energy Reports Record Revenue in Q2 2014
• EIA: Eagle Ford Oil Production Will Hit 1.5-Million b/d - Sept. 2014
• Texas American Resources, LLC Exits Eagle Ford

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.