Eagle Ford Rig Count Drops

July 30, 2016 Elizabeth Alford

The Eagle Ford Shale rig count fell this week, ending with 38 rigs running across our coverage area by midday Friday.

In recent Eagle Ford news, Encana Corporation released 2016 second quarter earnings, announcing they one of the lowest cost, highest performing operators in the Eagle Ford Shale Play.

A total of 460 oil and gas rigs were running across the United States this week, up one from last week. 86 were targeting natural gas (two less than the previous week) and 374 were targeting oil in the U.S. (three more than the previous week). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.) 214 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

There rigs targeting natural gas in the Eagle Ford increased to eight as natural gas traded a bit higher at $2.88/mmbtu.

The Eagle Ford rigs targeting oil increased at 30 with WTI oil prices dipping to $41.60, a $2.59 decrease this week.

A total of 34 rigs are drilling horizontal wells, one is drilling directional wells, and three is vertical.

Karnes County leads development in the region with eight rigs running this week. See the full list below in the Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by County below.

Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by County

agle Ford Shale News

Baytex Energy Reduces Eagle Ford Spending

Eagle Ford Companies Struggle as Bankruptcies Soar

Anadarko: No Drilling in the Eagle Ford for Q2

Energy Hunter Resources Moves into Karnes County

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.

Baytex Energy Reduces Eagle Ford Spending

July 28, 2016 Elizabeth Alford

Baytex has reduced development and spending in the Eagle Ford for the second quarter of 2016

Baytex Energy executives announced their second quarter results today that highlighted significant cost reductions and a lowered net debt of $39 million.

In their Eagle Ford operations, Baytex reduced capital spending to$35.5 million, down from $81.7 million in Q1/2016 and $140.8 million in Q4/2015.

“Our emphasis on deploying capital efficiently wad evidenced during the second quarter as we continued to defer investments in our heavy oil operations in Canada and reduced the pace of development in the Eagle Ford. As a result we significantly curtailed our level of capital spending focusing all development activity in Eagle Ford.”

— Jim Bowzer, CEO

Other Eagle Ford highlights include:

Disposed operated assets in the Eagle Ford for approximately $55 million
Participated drilling 11 (net) wells
Began production on six of the new wells (40% drop from 2015)
Production rate of on new wells was approximately 1300 BOEs per day
Three drilling rigs (compared to six inQ1/2016)
Cost in the Eagle Ford has continued to decrease with wells now being drilled, completed and equipped for approximately US$5.4 million as compared to US$8.2 million in late 2014

Anadarko: No Drilling in the Eagle Ford for Q2

July 27, 2016 Elizabeth Alford

**Anadarko Petroleum Corp. 2nd Quarter Earnings**

Anadarko announces it will focus activity on other shale plays instead of the Eagle Ford into 2017.

In the wake of a $692 million second quarter loss, Anadarko Petroluem Corp. says they are sticking with their plan of patience outlined earlier this year, which includes holding the line on spending for 2016.

R. A. Walker – Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer says that should change next year as he foresees a sustained $60 oil price environment for 2017. He says if that happens, the company will likely spend its money on the DJ and Delaware basins over the Eagle Ford Shale.

“The Eagle Ford Shale doesn’t compete for capital as well as the other two basins (DJ and Delaware). That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t create attractive rates of return. It just unfortunately is up against two exceptional assets that create better rates of return. And for a company that’s trying to stay close to or on top of discretionary cash flow with CapEx, it just unfortunately as a result of that doesn’t feed on capital and constantly is not being unallocated capital.”

— R. A. Walker

Anadarko reported there was no drilling activity for the quarter in the Eagle ford. Anadarko is one of the Eagleford’s largest producers, with roughly 388,000 gross acres in Dimmit, LaSalle, Maverick and Webb Counties.

Anadarko’s second quarter highlights:

Record production levels at three Gulf of Mexico facilities and in the U.S. onshoreDelaware and DJ basins
Encountered more than 1,040 net feet of oil pay at the Shenandoah-5 appraisal well and increased working interest in this operated deepwater discovery
Closed $2.5 billion of monetizations year to date
Retired $3 billion of near-term maturities with proceeds from debt issued during the first quarter

Encana Loses $601 Million but Remains Positive

July 25, 2016 Elizabeth Alford

**Encana Releases 2nd Quarter Earnings**

Encana Corporation released 2016 second quarter earnings, announcing they one of the lowest cost, highest performing operators in the Eagle Ford Shale Play.

Related: Encana’s Strong First Quarter

Encana is one of the first oil and gas producers out of gate with 2016 second quarter earnings and operations reports. In their recent conference call, executives focused on their success at reducing costs, increasing capital efficiency and increasing production instead of their loss of $601 million.

Encana is focused on activity in their four core assets at Eagle Ford, Permian, Duvernay and Montney and anticipate they will deliver approximately 13,000 BOE/d of production in the fourth quarter of this year and between 30,000 to 35,000 BOE/d in 2017.

“Our current Eagle Ford pacesetter is just $3 million and this compares to an average of over $8 million when we first entered the play. This pacesetter well cost took us over eight days to drill and was completed with a larger frac intensity. We signaled last quarter that we intended to ramp up our frac intensity and that would add approximately $400,000 per well.”

— Doug Suttles, Encana President & CEO

Highlights include:

Cash flow up over 75 percent from the previous quarter to $182 million
95 percent of capital invested in high return wells in the core four assets; the Permian, Eagle Ford, Duvernay and Montney
Maintained scale in the core four assets which delivered 268,300 barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOE/d), representing 73 percent of the company’s 368,300 BOE/d total production
Adding 50 percent more drilling and completions activity to our 2016 program

Learn more at encana.com

Eagle Ford Shale Rig Count Back in the 40’s

July 23, 2016 Elizabeth Alford

The Eagle Ford Shale rig count continued its climb this week with 40 rigs running across our coverage area by midday Friday.

In recent Eagle Ford news, two more Eagle Ford companies are showing signs of trouble as Texas oil and gas bankruptcies skyrocket.

A total of 459 oil and gas rigs were running across the United States this week, up 13 over last week. 88 were targeting natural gas (one less than the previous week) and 371 were targeting oil in the U.S. (14 more than the previous week). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.) 217 of the rigs active in the U.S. were running in Texas.

Eagle Ford Oil & Gas Rigs

There rigs targeting natural gas remained flat in the Eagle Ford at six as natural gas traded a bit higher at $2.78/mmbtu.

The Eagle Ford rigs targeting oil increased at 34 with WTI oil prices dipping to $44.19, a $1.76 decrease this week.

A total of 35 rigs are drilling horizontal wells, one is drilling directional wells, and four is vertical.

Karnes County leads development in the region gaining two to 10 rigs running this week. See the full list below in the Eagle Ford Shale Drilling by County below.