The Eagle Ford Shale rig countdecreased by two rigs from 269 to 267 running last week. Without a major change in commodity prices, watch for the rig count to remain flat to up a bit throughout the rest of the year. Also, watch for companies to begin releasing 2014 development plans. We're hearing several companies might add rigs early in the year.

The most interesting announcement of the week was from Shell. The company plans to sell over 100,000 acres and operated production of ~30,000 boe/d gross in the play. They company stated their position simply hasn't met their criteria for size and investment returns. My bet is a smaller company can make the position work better than a super-major with competing interests around the globe. Read the full article Shell's Eagle Ford Acreage Is For Sale.

The U.S. rig count increased 12 rigs from 1,744 to 1,756 running over the past week. A total of 378 rigs are targeting natural gas (2 more than last week) and 1,372 are targeting oil in the U.S. The remainder are drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.). 830 rigs are 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 (227 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

[ic-l]The natural gas rig count increased by one from 38 to 39 rigs running over the past week. Natural gas prices were trading around $3.60/mmbtu on Oct 4th.

The oil rig count decreased by three rigs from 230 to 227 running. WTI oil prices were trading just below $103/bbl. Oil prices have been above $100 for 13 weeks now. Eagle Ford light crude traded at $100.25/bbl on Oct 4th.

A total of 232 rigs are drilling horizontal wells, 22 rigs are drilling directional wells, and 13 rigs are drilling true vertical wells. Karnes and McMullen counties lead development with 31 and 30 rigs running, respectively. See the full list of drilling by county below.

South Texas Oil & Gas News:

• Forest Oil Sells Panhandle Assets to Focus in the Eagle Ford
• Martin Midstream LPG Plant Planned in Corpus Christi
• Valero Investing to Handle More Eagle Ford Oil
• EOG Accelerates Eaglebine JV With ZaZa
• Shell's Eagle Ford Acreage Is For Sale

Be sure to visit our South Texas Oilfield Job Listings to search openings and come back weekly for updates or sign up for alerts - Daily or Weekly Email Alerts

Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by County

Eagle Ford Operated Rig Count By Company

SmithBits no longer reports its operated rig count, but we'll have updated number for you from a new source soon. Until then, you can reference our numbers from mid-April. There has not been a significant change in the overall rig count since this date:

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 and/or Smith Service Co's (Schlumberger) Smith Rig Count.