Eagle Ford Rig Count Flat at 278 - April 27, 2012
The Eagle Ford Shale drilling rig count held flat at a record of 278 working units week over week. That means the month of April was the most active in the history of the Eagle Ford. An average of more than 274 rigs were running the entire month. The top 20 operators control almost exactly 80% of the rigs, with the top five running 47% of all rigs in the region.
Eagle Ford Oil & Gas Rigs
The natural gas directed count fell to 68 rigs this week. Future prices for Henry Hub were trading at $2.17/mmbtu as of Friday afternoon. That's a nice bump from last week, but that's largely due to contracts rolling into the next month. Oil directed activity jumped three rigs to 210 and oil prices were trading at $104.50 per barrel (WTI) early in the afternoon.
A record 264 horizontal rigs are running in the region. Karnes County leads development with 44 rigs. La Salle (38), McMullen (28), Dimmit (27), Webb (27), DeWitt (26), Gonzales (25), Live Oak (12), and Frio and Zavala counties with 8 rigs each make up the top Eagle Ford counties.
Quarterly earnings reports started this week and we'll get even more news next week:
- Eagle Ford Production Surpasses 2 Bcf/d and 500k b/d - On Track for More Than 3,000 Wells in 2012
- KinderMorgan Acquires the Camino Real Gathering System from KKR
- ConocoPhillips Revenue is Down, but Eagle Ford Activity is Up
- Eagle Ford Development is Driving Rail Traffic Across South Texas
If you are headed to San Antonio/South Texas, visit our Eagle Ford Hotels page. We've negotiated discounted rates with hotels that are welcoming the Oil & Gas Industry.
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Drilling Rig Count by Operator
hat 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.