Last Wednesday we published the Permian count. This week: the basin growing faster. The Eagle Ford set 676 compressors in 2025, more than the prior three years combined, and the first half of 2026 is running ahead of that pace. Every one of those sets is in the count: operator, vendor, engine, build date, horsepower, at the unit.
This is Iron Count No. 02, a four-page brief of what six and a half years of that record holds for the Gulf Coast and Eagle Ford. All of it is free: the setting pace since 2020, who set iron in the first half of 2026, the engine families that run the basin, every major operator’s vendor book, and the midstream own-versus-rent spectrum, audited against SEC filings.
One number to set the tone: Kodiak has led this basin since 2020, and in the first half of 2026 Archrock out-set it by 1.8 to 1. Vendor share is moving in the hottest basin in the count, which is exactly when your incumbent’s pricing assumptions deserve a second look.
2025 set more iron than the prior three years combined and 2026 is running ahead of that pace. Who set the iron in H1: Verdun leads the E&P table ahead of EOG and ConocoPhillips, Lavaca Midstream leads the midstream side, and three-quarters of the basin’s horsepower lands in fifteen Texas counties on the Eagle Ford trend.
What drives the basin: engine families, and how old the iron really is. The G3516 is the default here too, the big-bore 3600s are the scarce class, and 95% of the dated iron predates this decade. Plus the exhibit nobody else has: six turbines in the Louisiana LNG corridor carrying 5.2% of the basin’s new horsepower.
ABS Operators should immediately go to the top of your targeting board if you are a compression provider. Find out why below:
Who set the iron, and whose iron it is. Twelve E&P vendor books with the leading vendor named, the midstream own-versus-rent spectrum, and three ownership verdicts audited against the filings, including the 98-unit book that shows 332 attributed horsepower.
The Iron Count covers a new basin every Thursday, biggest first. Mid-Con / Anadarko is next.