Houston-based Carrizo Oil & Gas leads the pack with nine drilling permit applications, followed by EP Energy, BP-owned BHP Billiton, SilverBow Resources and Texas American Resources Corp.

La Salle County’s geography varies with crude oil wells concentrated in the northern end, natural gas and condensate wells in the middle and purely natural gas wells in the southern end.

Karnes County has traditionally been the Eagle Ford’s hot spot but La Salle County has seen a notable increase in activity over the past year.

This week, La Salle County ranks second behind the Permian Basin’s Martin County where four companies filed for 34 drilling permits.