The Eagle Ford Shale drilling rig count grew to 273 to end the week. BHP Billiton held for the second week in a row as the most active operator in South Texas. Chesapeake had held the top spot for more than a year and half, but has plans to lower its operated rig count to 25 by year-end and average 22 rigs running in 2013. The company has increased drilling efficiencies significantly over the past year. More wells per rig means fewer rigs are needed overall. The company's capital budget is also constrained by low natural gas prices. In the past month alone, the company has sold almost $7 billion in assets to bridge its funding gap. Some of those assets were in the Eagle Ford. You can read more in our article Chesapeake's Eagle Ford Midstream Assets Sold.
Eagle Ford Oil & Gas Rigs - New Oil Rig Count Record 217
The number of natural gas rigs fell to 53 this week. We've hovered in the 50-55 range for almost a month now and now there are no counties with more than 10 natural gas rigs running. Most leases are held by production and operators are going back to judging prospects based on economics. That will continue to be reflected in the natural gas rig count. There are a record 217 oil rigs working the region. That surpasses the old record of 215 set just two weeks ago.
One water well is being drilled in Bastrop County and two disposal wells are being drilled - one in Karnes County and one in Leon County.
Henry Hub futures were trading at ~$2.95 on Friday afternoon. That's an almost $0.30 jump from last week. Spot prices also increased to $2.94 from ten cents less in the prior week.
WTI was trading at ~$99/bbl Friday afternoon. This is the first week in a month we've ended the week higher than $96/bbl. Eagle Ford crude priced at almost $108/bbl on September 14th and light crude and condensate in the area traded at $95.50 and $94.50, respectively.
There are 252 horizontal rigs running in the region. The four counties leading development are Karnes with 38 rigs, Dimmit (32), La Salle with 32 and McMullen with 28. Webb (22), DeWitt (21), Gonzales (19), Atascosa (16), Frio (12), and Live Oak (11) round out the top Eagle Ford counties.
News items this week included:
- Enterprise Added the Second 300 mmcfd Processing Train in Yoakum, TX
- Longview Energy Won a Court Battle Over Zavala County Acreage
- Energy & Exploration is Preparing a Public Offering
- PEMEX Plans to Spend $200 Million on Shale Plays
- Chesapeake is Selling its Eagle Ford Midstream Assets
Be sure to visit our South Texas Oilfield Job Listings to search openings and come back weekly for updates or sign up for alerts.
Eagle Ford Rig Count by Operator
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 SmithBits 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.
Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by County
