The Eagle Ford Shale rig count reversed its recent trend this week, falling to 56 rigs running across our coverage area by midday Friday.

In recent Eagle Ford news, The University of Chicago released a study showing the economic benefits of fracking on local economies still outweigh the more undesirable side effects, according to a new study.

Read more: Fracking Boosts Local Economies

A total of 658 oil and gas rigs were running across the United States this week, a loss of six over last week. 136 rigs targeted natural gas (one more than the previous week) and 522 were targeting oil in the U.S. (seven less than the previous week). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.) 325 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

Eight rigs in the Eagle Ford region targeted natural gas this week with the commodity trading at $3.46/mmbtu.

48 Eagle Ford rigs were targeting oil with WTI oil prices dipping slightly to $52.55. 

A total of 52 rigs are drilling horizontal wells, one are drilling directional wells and three are vertical.

Karnes County leads this week with 13 rigs in production. See the full list below in the Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by County below.

Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by County

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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.