US oil rig counts continued expanding the domestic working crude-directed fleet, pushing it up by seven to 609 as the Eagle Ford Shale further heated up, Baker Hughes data showed Friday. Oil rigs in the Eagle Ford, sited in South Texas, were up by five to 64 — the second-highest weekly jump since the number bottomed in July at 26. A six-rig increase occurred one week in late January. This year alone, oil rigs are up 60% in the Eagle Ford, where crude production dropped by 600,000 b/d in the recent two-year downturn from low oil prices. Eagle Ford oil production is now 1 million b/d but experts anticipate it will rise beginning later this year. “The recovery is spreading out from the Permian,” which until recently was consistently winning in weekly rig count adds during the last 11 months, Evercore ISI analyst James West said in an interview. […]