The Bakken-Three Forks rig count remained flat at 176 rigs running across our coverage area by the end of last week. The NDIC notes 190 rigs are active in North Dakota, but around 20 of those are in the process of moving in and rigging up.
In recent Bakken news, combined production from North Dakota and Texas made up nearly half of U.S. oil production according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) in April of 2013.
Recently, the state of North Dakota hit the 1-million b/d mark for oil, nearly tripling its production over a three year period. The increase in production is directly related to the development of the Bakken Shale. Since April of 2011, production from the Bakken increased 19,000 b/d on average each month, according to the EIA.
Read more: North Dakota & Texas Make Up Half of U.S. Oil Production
The U.S. rig count increased by one to 1,874 rigs running by the end of last week. A total of 311 rigs were targeting natural gas (three less than the previous week) and 1,562 were targeting oil in the U.S. (four more than the previous week). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.). 178 rigs are running in the Williston Basin across MT, ND, and SD. 171 are in ND alone.
Not all rigs counted in our census are drilling for the Bakken, but it's close. The NDIC estimates 95% or more of activity in this region targets the Bakken and Three Forks formations.
Note: The NDIC reports 190 rigs are active in North Dakota. That is 12 more than Baker Hughes reports in the Bakken area, and 19 more than the company reports in North Dakota. The difference is likely accounted for in the number of rigs actually working, rigs that might not be serviced by Baker Hughes AND rigs in areas outside of the Bakken fairway. On any given week, a certain number of rigs are in route to the next well location or idle waiting to drill the next well. The NDIC notes that around 20 rigs are in the process of moving in and rigging up.
Bakken Oil & Gas Rigs
The number of oil rigs remained flat at 176 rigs running by the end of the week . WTI oil prices decreased by ~$2 from the previous week, trading at $103.68/bbl on Friday afternoon. Williston Basin Sweet crude traded at $90.69/bbl on July 3rd. The WTI-Brent was about the same, settling at ~$7 by the end of last week.
The natural gas rig count in the region held flat at zero. Natural gas futures (Henry Hub) were trading at $4.29/mmbtu by the end of last week. A little more than 10% of the production stream from the Bakken and Three Forks is attributable to natural gas and roughly half of that is NGLs.
McKenzie County continues to lead development with 64 rigs running. Dunn, Mountrail, and Williams counties are the only other counties with more than 23 rigs running each. View the full list below under the Bakken Drilling by County section.
Activity is dominated by horizontal drilling:
- 161 rigs are drilling horizontal wells
- 15 rigs are drilling directional wells
- 0 rigs are drilling vertical wells
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Bakken Drilling by County
What is the Rig Count?
The Bakken Shale Rig Count is an index of the total number of oil & gas drilling rigs running across Montana and North Dakota. The rigs referred to in this article are for ALL drilling reported by Baker Hughes and not solely wells targeting the Bakken formation. All land rigs and onshore rig data shown here are based upon industry estimates provided by the Baker Hughes Rig Count and/or Smith Service Co's (Schlumberger) Smith Rig Count.