Rig Counts Decline Across the Country and the Eagle Ford Shale

July 22, 2017 Elizabeth Alford

The Eagle Ford Shale rig count continues to struggle, falling by 2 this week to 91 rigs running across our coverage area by midday Friday.

The total rig count across Texas adn the U.S. also declined for the first time in months.

In recent Eagle Ford Shale news, the number of Texas oil and gas companies seeking debt relief decreased from 18 during the first four months of 2016 to four in 2017.

Bankruptcies Spike Across Texas; Shrink for Oil & Gas

A total of 950 oil and gas rigs were running across the United States this week, two less than last week. 186 rigs targeted natural gas (one less than the previous week) and 764 were targeting oil in the U.S. (one less than the previous week). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.) 463 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

10 rigs in the Eagle Ford region targeted natural gas this week with the commodity trading lower at $2.97/mmbtu.

81 Eagle Ford rigs were targeting oil with WTI oil prices at $45.77.

A total of 88 rigs are drilling horizontal wells, zero are drilling directional wells and three are vertical.

Karnes County leads this week with 21 rigs in production. See the full list below in the Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by County below.

Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by County

Eagle Ford Rig Count by County-July 21, 2017 — Eagle Ford Rig Count by County-July 21, 2017

Eagle Ford Shale News

Bankruptcies Spike Across Texas; Shrink for Oil & Gas

Crude Oil Spill in Bastrop County

Eagle Ford Shale Counties Rank First in Oil, Gas and Condensate

Eagle Ford Oil Production Up

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.

Bankruptcies Spike Across Texas; Shrink for Oil & Gas

July 21, 2017 Elizabeth Alford

Record numbers of Texas companies are declaring bankruptcy, while the trend is shrinking for oil and gas companies in the state.

Texas Oil & Gas Bankruptcies Lead Pack

649 businesses sought bankruptcy protection in Texas courts during the first half of 2017, an increase of 44% over the same period a year ago.

Many analysts believe the spike in total bankruptcies is a result of the oil patch problems of the last few of years. Ironically, oil and gas bankruptcies have slowed. The number of Texas oil and gas companies seeking debt relief decreased from 18 during the first four months of 2016 to four in 2017.

Haynes and Boone, LLP issued its latest report showing nine oil and gas producers filed bankruptcy from January-April 2017, down from 29 from the same period last year. The combined secured and unsecured debt represented in these filings totals approximately $44 billion.

Since the beginning of 2015, bankruptcies from oil and gas producers spiked as the crude oil price crash took its toll. The total bankruptcies involved approximately $79.9 billion in debt, according to the law firm of Haynes and Boone, LLP. Their bankruptcy tracker also shows the aggregate debt from oilfield services bankruptcy cases in 2015-2017 is $25.9 billion and the average debt of these cases exceeds $203 million

Texas was hit specifically hard in 2016, with more than half (25) of the 2016 filing being initiated in Texas courts. The combined total Texas bankruptcy filings for 2015-17 is 50, almost 40% of the total number of 127 and representing approximately $29 billion in cumulative debt.

Read full Bankruptcy Monitor at haynesboone.com

Eagle Ford Shale Rig Count Falls to 93

July 14, 2017 Elizabeth Alford

The Eagle Ford Shale rig count fell by three this week with 93 rigs running across our coverage area by midday Friday.

In recent Eagle Ford Shale news, the Texas Railroad Commission is investigating a major oil spill in Eagle Ford's Bastrop County.

A total of 952 oil and gas rigs were running across the United States this week, the same as last week. 187 rigs targeted natural gas (two less than the previous week) and 765 were targeting oil in the U.S. (two more than the previous week). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.) 466 of the rigs active in the U.S. were running in Texas.

Eagle Ford Oil & Gas Rigs

Nine rigs in the Eagle Ford region targeted natural gas this week with the commodity trading lower at $2.98/mmbtu.

84 Eagle Ford rigs were targeting oil with WTI oil prices at $46.68.

A total of 90 rigs are drilling horizontal wells, zero are drilling directional wells and three are vertical.

Karnes County leads this week with 21 rigs in production. See the full list below in the Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by County below.

Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by County

Eagle Ford Rig Count by County-July 9, 2017 — Eagle Ford Rig Count by County-July 9, 2017

Eagle Ford Shale News

Crude Oil Spill in Bastrop County

Eagle Ford Shale Counties Rank First in Oil, Gas and Condensate

Eagle Ford Oil Production Up

Sanchez Energy Sells Eagle Ford Assets

What is the Rig Count?

Crude Oil Spill in Bastrop County

July 13, 2017 Elizabeth Alford

Source: Bastrop Office Emergency Management | Click to Enlarge

News sources around the state are reporting a major oil spill in Eagle Ford's Bastrop County.

Officials from Bastrop County reported a crude oil spill around 9:00 a.m. on July 13 near 417 FM 20. The spill was caused when an excavator cut through the Longhorn pipeline during routine maintenance.

The pipeline is owned by Magellan Midstream Partners, which is estimating that the accident caused around 1,200 barrels of crude oil to leak from the pipeline. The company said that there are about 100 people working at the site including emergency responders, clean-up and environmental specialists, state and federal regulators and Magellan employees.

Related: More Texas Pipelines Needed

At 5:30pm, the Bastrop Office of Emergency Management announced on their Facebook page that people were free to return home. The agency also is reporting that FM 20 will be shut down until at least Friday morning.

“Efforts are in progress to contain the crude oil release to minimize environmental impact and to ensure public safety. As a safety precaution, several families near the site have temporarily evacuated and a section of FM 20 has been closed. There are no injuries associated with the incident.”

— Bastrop County Office of Emergency Management (Facebook)

Read local new story at KXAN

Eagle Ford Shale Counties Rank First in Oil, Gas and Condensate

July 10, 2017 Elizabeth Alford

Eagle Ford Shale counties rank first for oil, natural gas, and condensate production in April.

The Texas Railroad Commission (RRC) released April production numbers last week, highlighting that total oil production increased over the last year's preliminary figures while natural gas decreased.

APRIL 2016: 74,597,958 barrels of crude oil | 616,993,278 mcf of total gas
APRIL 2017: 78,389,597 barrels of crude oil | 605,379,703 mcf of total gas

The RRC reported Karnes County produced an average of 7,025,935 (BBLS) of crude for the month of April, up from 5,603,618 bbls in January. Webb and Dimmit topped the list for natural gas and condensate.

The chart below shows how all Eagle Ford Counties ranked in April.

Eagle Ford Shale Production Numbers for April, 2017 - Source, Texas Railroad Commission

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) predicts that crude oil production for July will increase 43 thousand barrel a day in the Eagle Ford Shale over June, going from 1,325 Mbbl/d to 1,368 Mbbl/d. The agency is forecasting increases in both U.S. oil and natural gas production through 2018.

Crude Oil production 9.3 million b/d in 2017 and 10.0 million b/d in 2018
Natural gas production will average 73.3 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2017 and 3.3 Bcf/d for 2018