Bakken super-producer, Continental Resources, announced that crude prices are finally within a good range for them to move forward with well completions.
Related: Continental Sidelines Bakken Rigs
Founder and CEO Harold Hamm told Bloomberg this week that new drilling in the Bakken won't take place until crude prices pass the $60 before mark. But encouraged by the recent increases, the company will move forward to complete their backlog of wells that still need to be fracked.
In late 2015, Hamm announced that Continental would join other producers to sideline their rigs in the Bakken. There are currently 24 running rigs in the Bakken Three Forks region, down from 54 in December. These drilled but uncompleted wells (DUC) have remained dormant as Hamm and others waited out the prices.
“Peter Pulikkan of Bloomberg referred to Lynn Hems data when he said “Most Bakken shale drillers will start completiing their backlogs of unfinished wells when crude reaches $55-$60 range.””
According to North Dakota's energy agency, at the end of 2015 there were 4290 DUCS in the U.S. and Continental had 945 of them. .
Continental Resources reduced their 2016 capital spending to just $920 million, down from $2.7 billion last year. They predict this large cut will lead to production of around 205,000 barrels to 215,000 barrels of oil equivalents per day in 2016, down from 221,700 boe per day last year.