Clayton Williams Eagle Ford Acreage Map | Click to Enlarge
The Eagle Ford Shale rig count increased by four to 267 rigs running across our coverage area by the end of last week.
In recent Eagle Ford news, Clayton Williams production, revenues and operating costs for the first-quarter of 2014 were down compared to the first-quarter of 2013, after two significant divestitures over the course of the last year. Overall production was 250 boe/d below analyst estimates for the first-quarter of 2014 according to company officials.
Read more: Clayton Williams Falls Short of First-Quarter 2014 Production Estimate
The U.S. rig count increased by 30 to 1,861 rigs running by the end of last week. A total of 323 rigs were targeting natural gas (7 more than the previous week) and 1,534 were targeting oil in the U.S. (24 more than the previous week). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.). 894 or ~48% of rigs active in the U.S. were 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 (219 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
The natural gas rig count remained flat at 16 rigs running by the end of last week. Average rig counts for natural gas production in 2012 were around 82 and then dropped to around 41 in 2013. Natural gas prices stayed relatively flat from last week at $4.65/mmbtu on Friday afternoon.
The oil rig count increased by 4 to 251 rigs running by the end of last week. WTI oil prices decreased slightly, trading at $100.56/bbl on Friday afternoon. Eagle Ford light crude traded at $98.50/bbl on April 24th.
A total of 231 rigs are drilling horizontal wells, 21 rigs are drilling directional wells, and 15 rigs are drilling vertical wells. Karnes, La Salle, Dimmit, McMullen and Webb counties each have at minimum 25 rigs running. Karnes County has the highest rig count this week at 31. See the full list below in the Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by County:
South Texas Oil & Gas News:
Austin Exploration Eagle Ford Well with Halcón Resources Has Good Initial Production (IP) Rates
Clayton Williams Falls Short of First-Quarter 2014 Production Estimate
Sundance Energy Completes Eagle Ford Lease Acquisition and Development Agreement
Kinder Morgan Secures Enough Commitments for Eagle Ford KMCC Pipeline
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 Count
County
Previous Week
Current Week
County
Previous Week
Current Week
KARNES
29
31
WILSON
4
4
LA SALLE
27
28
FAYETTE
3
3
MCMULLEN
27
27
GRIMES
3
3
DIMMIT
25
26
LEON
2
3
WEBB
26
25
LEE
2
2
DE WITT
23
24
BEE
0
1
ATASCOSA
16
16
COLORADO
1
1
GONZALES
12
12
WASHINGTON
1
1
LIVE OAK
15
12
AUSTIN
0
0
LAVACA
11
11
DUVAL
0
0
BURLESON
10
10
GOLIAD
0
0
MADISON
9
10
MAVERICK
0
0
ZAVALA
7
7
MILAM
0
0
FRIO
6
6
ROBERTSON
0
0
BRAZOS
4
4
BASTROP
0
0
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:
Operator Name
Apr-13
BHP (Petrohawk)
28
EOG Resources
25
Marathon Oil
18
Chesapeake
16
ConocoPhillips
10
Pioneer Natural
10
Anadarko
9
Lewis Petroleum
8
Murphy Oil
7
Plains Exploration
7
Talisman Energy (Statoil)
7
EP Energy
6
Halcon Resources
6
Hunt Oil
6
Swift Energy
6
Rosetta Resources
6
Cabot Oil & Gas
5
SM Energy
5
Shell
4
Carrizo Oil & Gas
3
All Others
50+
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.