The Bakken-Three Forks rig count fell this week with 25 rigs running across our coverage area by midday Friday.

A total of 414 oil and gas rigs were running across the United States this week, down five from last week. 86 were targeting natural gas (one less than the previous week) and 328 were targeting oil in the U.S. (four less than the previous week). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.)25 of the rigs active in the U.S. were running in North Dakota.

Bakken Oil & Gas Rigs

Bakken oil rigs fell to 25 this week with Bloomberg reporting WTI oil prices dipping to $44.62 on Friday afternoon. WTI-Brent also decreased this week to $45.32.  The Bakken has zero natural active gas rig in the area this week with futures trading to $2.10/mmbtu by midday.

McKenzie County continues to lead development with 12 rigs running this week, far outpacing other counties. View the full list below under the Bakken Drilling by County section.

Activity continues to be dominated by horizontal drilling:

• 25 rigs are drilling horizontal wells
• 0 rigs are drilling directional wells
• 0 rigs are drilling vertical wells

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.

Read more at bakerhughes.com