ND Lawmakers Side with Trump on Keystone

March 30, 2017 Elizabeth Alford

North Dakota lawmakers are on board with President Trump's support of the Keystone Pipeline.

Last week, President Donald Trump formally resurrected the Keystone XL Pipeline by granting a permit for construction to continue and offering help to speed the process. This marks a reversal from the previous administration, when Barak Obama worked to block the controversial pipeline.

North Dakota's Sen. John Hoeven and Rep. Kevin Cramer and Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp are lauding the president's decision to allow the project to move forward. The group supports the pipeline because it will boost job creation, economic growth and American independence.

“TransCanada will finally be allowed to complete this long-overdue project with efficiency and with speed. It’s going to be an incredible pipeline, the greatest technology known to man or woman. And frankly, we’re very proud of it.”

— President, Donald Trump

The Keystone pipeline has been the focus of a highly political debate that has been raging since 2008, when the TransCanada Corporation first applied for a permit to construct the pipeline. At issue is a proposed 1,179-mile section of the pipeline that would run through the heart of the Bakken Formation in order to deliver 800,000 barrels of petroleum to the refineries on the Gulf Coast.

Northern Oil & Gas Will Add Bakken Wells

March 15, 2017 Elizabeth Alford

Northern Oil and Gas will ramp up activity in the Bakken Shale in 2017.

In a recent press release, Northern executives announced a 2017 capital budget of $102.2 million. The company will drill 12 new wells in the Bakken Shale during 2017 and expects total annual production to equal or exceed 2016.

Fourth Quarter and Full Year Highlights

Q4 Net loss was $12.3 million ($172.3 million in Q4 2015)
2016 net loss of $293.5 million ($975.4 million in 2015)
Average 90-day initial production rate increased 47% in 2016
Completed $8.9 million property acquisition in the Q4
2016 capital expenditures totaled $75.6 million (41.3% decrease over 2015)
Q4 production totaled 1,259,274 barrels of oil equivalent ("Boe")
End of year: $212.5 million of liquidity

“We continue to see an increase in deal flow kind of coming in smaller package sizes like that, so we’ll continue to stay aggressively in the market doing that. With the liquidity, I think you’ll see us pretty much ramp up with respect to the activity, I guess, in the Bakken. When you take a look at our large acreage position of over 154,000 net acres, it’s a good acreage position located in great parts of the basin.”

— Tom Stoelk, Interim CEO and Chief Financial Officer

Bakken Producers Announce 2017 Plans

ExxonMobil Corporation said it would shift its focus to U.S. shale drilling for the remainder of 2017
Continental 70% of Continental’s 2017 budget will be used to complete wells in the Bakken at a cost of $550 million
Hess Corp will add additional rigs in the Bakken and predicts the region's net production will average between 95,000 and 105,000 boepd.

ExxonMobil Bets on U.S. Shale

March 6, 2017 Elizabeth Alford

ExxonMobil Corporation plans to shift its focus to U.S. shale drilling for the remainder of 2017.

ExxonMobil executives announced last week they anticipate their 2017 capital spending program to be around $22 billion, an increase of 16 percent from 2016. Of that amount, they will allocate $5.5 billion for drilling in Bakken Shale and Permian basin.

“More than one quarter of the planned spending this year will be made in high-value, short-cycle opportunities, including in the Permian and Bakken basins. Short-cycle investments are those expected to generate positive cash flow in less than three years after initial investment. ”

— Darren Woods, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

ExxonMobil's 2017 shale activity includes targeting annual output equivalent to 4 million to 4.4 million barrels of oil a day. The company is currently active with 5,500 wells in the Permian and the Bakken with total annual net production growth from these basins through 2025 could be as high as 750,000 oil-equivalent barrels per day.

2016 Performance Highlights

Increased its dividend for 34 consecutive years through 2016
The only major integrated oil company to significantly increase its dividend last year by 3.5 percent.
Recently completed its acquisition of InterOil to expand its acreage in Papua New Guinea and doubled its resource base in the Permian basin through another purchase.
Generated more than $26 billion of cash flow from operations and asset sales in 2016 including $4.3 billion from asset sales

Dakota Access Protest Camps Evacuated

February 27, 2017 Elizabeth Alford

Protests at the construction site of the Dakota Access Pipeline are coming to a close after almost a year of tension and confrontation.

After Governor Burgum signed an emergency evacuation order for the Oceti Sakowin camp, the main site of protests, the property was cleared last week. The area is in a flood plain and the warmer temperatures have increased a risk of flooding.

Since the cleanup began, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reportedly hauled out over 240 dumpsters filled with trash, personal items and old building material with is likely another 240 loads to go.

CNN reported that at least 23 people holding out in the camp were arrested Thursday morning after they refused to leave but most left voluntarily.

Demonstrators have been protesting the 1,172 mile Dakota Access Pipeline for nearly a year, with some estimates numbering the crowd in the thousands. While the main focus of the protests were in Cannonball, people from all over the world joined in solidarity including protests in Los Angeles, Seattle and Dallas, home of Energy Transfer Partners

Protests on the Dakota Access Pipeline escalated in September after Labor Day violence shut down construction. What had been peaceful protests in the small town of Cannonball Dakota turned ugly after the pipeline company allegedly used bulldozers to destroy sacred tribal sites. Things escalated with guards using pepper spray and dogs to curb the situation.

Construction on the pipeline was almost complete when new protests erupted in October. Demonstrators are concerned about the environmental impact of the pipeline, including contamination of the Missouri River, which is the primary water source for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Tribal leaders are also upset that the pipeline will disturb sacred burial grounds.

Oil and gas operators are counting on the pipeline's capacity to ship 570,000 barrels a day in 2017. This prolonged set-backs means they may be looking to alternatives and many will be forced to rely on rail to ship product.

Bakken Rig Count at 25

May 6, 2016 Elizabeth Alford

Abraxas Buys Bakken Acreage — Bakken Rigs

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.