The Bakken-Three Forks rig count remained flat at 183 rigs running by the end of last week. The NDIC notes 190 rigs are active in North Dakota, but around 18 of those are in the process of moving in and rigging up.

In recent news, U.S. Senators appealed to the Senate Appropriations Committee last week for railway safety funding. The requests come on the heels of several incidences, including a December 2013 train collision and derailment in Casselton, ND, that spilled ~950 bbls of Bakken crude oil.

Read more: U.S. Senators Appeal to Senate Appropriations Committee for Railway Safety Funding

The U.S. rig count increased by 13 to 1831 rigs running by the end of last week. A total of 310 rigs are targeting natural gas (6 less than last week) and 1,517 are targeting oil in the U.S. (19 more than last week). The remainder are drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.). 185 rigs are running in the Williston Basin across MT, ND, and SD.

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. 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 18 rigs are in the process of moving in and rigging up.

Bakken Oil & Gas Rigs

The number of oil rigs stayed flat last week . WTI oil prices increased to $103.52/bbl on Friday afternoon. Williston Basin Sweet crude traded at $90.44/bbl on April 11th. The WTI-Brent closed up a bit, settling at ~$4 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$4.62/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 62 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:

• 168 rigs are drilling horizontal wells
• 15 rigs are drilling directional wells
• 0 rigs are drilling vertical wells.

Bakken Oil & Gas News

• U.S. Senators Appeal to Senate Appropriations Committee for Railway Safety Funding
• U.S. Energy Corp. and Abraxas Petroleum Provide Bakken Operations Update

Be sure to visit our Bakken Job Listings to search openings and come back weekly for updates or sign up for alerts - Daily or Weekly Email Alerts

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.