The Eagle Ford Shale rig count continued its climb this wee, with our data showing 52 rigs running across our coverage area by midday Friday.

In recent Eagle Ford news,  OPEC announced it will reduce oil production for the first time in eight years. This decision is great news for energy-producing regions in the United States including Texas and the Eagle Ford Shale Play. 

Read more: Eagle Ford to Gain From OPEC Production Decrease

A total of 623 oil and gas rigs were running across the United States this week, a gain of 27 over last week. 125 rigs targeted natural gas (six more than the previous week) and 498 were targeting oil in the U.S. (21 more than the previous week). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.) 303 of the rigs active in the U.S. were running in Texas.

Baker Hughes reports its own Eagle Ford Rig Count that covers the 14 core counties. 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 below.

Eagle Ford Oil & Gas Rigs

Nine rigs in the Eagle Ford region targeted natural gas this week with the commodity gaining to $3.75/mmbtu.

43 Eagle Ford rigs were targeting oil with WTI oil prices dipping slightly to $51.50. 

A total of 46 rigs are drilling horizontal wells, zero are drilling directional wells and six are vertical.

Karnes County leads this week with 13 rigs in production. See the full list below in the Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by County below.

Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by County

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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.

Read more at bakerhughes.com