The Eagle Ford Shale rig count fell by one this week, ending with31 rigs running across our coverage area by midday Friday.

In recent Eagle Ford news, Earthstone Energy executives express optimism that they can increase their Eagle Ford activity this summer as crude prices continue to move higher.

Read more: Earthstone Energy Looks to Resume Eagle Ford Activity

A total of 403 oil and gas rigs were running across the United States this week, down nine from last week. 87 were targeting natural gas (two more than the previous week) and 316 were targeting oil in the U.S. (two less that the previous week). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.) 173 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

Natural gas rigs in the Eagle Ford dropped to three this week as natural gas prices climb to $2.17/mmbtu.

The Eagle Ford rigs targeting oil stayed flat at 28 with WTI oil prices climbing to $49.27, a $1.28 increase this week. A total of 30 rigs are drilling horizontal wells, zero are drilling directional wells, and one are vertical rigs.

Karnes County leads development in the region with 8 rigs running this week. See the full list below in the Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by County below.

Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by County

Eagle Ford Shale News

Earthstone Energy Looks to Resume Eagle Ford Activity

EnerVest Grabs Eagle Ford Assets for $1.3 Billion

Kinder Morgan: Eagle Ford Production Down 28%

Texas Royalty Owners Win $52.5 Million

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