The Bakken-Three Forks rig count remained flat this week with 75 rigs running across our coverage area.
In recent Bakken news, North Dakota experienced its wettest May on record and all the rain is causing trouble for some oil and gas producers. Flood waters threaten operators near the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers.
Read more: Floods Threaten Bakken Producers
The U.S. rig count fell by nine, ending with 859 rigs running by midday Friday. A total of 221 rigs were targeting natural gas (down one from the previous week) and 635 were targeting oil in the U.S. (seven less than the previous week). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.)76 rigs are running in the Williston Basin across MT, ND, and SD. 76 are in ND alone.
Bakken Oil & Gas Rigs
The Bakken oil rigs stayed at 75 rigs this week with Bloomberg reporting WTI oil prices trading at $59.98/bbl on Friday afternoon, an $.85 increase from the previous week. WTI-Brent increased $.38 landing at $63.691. The Bakken has zero natural active gas rig in the area this week with futures trading dipping to $2.76/mmbtu by midday.
McKenzie County continues to lead development and is running 3o running this week. Williams (18) and Mountrail (13) counties are the next closest producers. View the full list below under the Bakken Drilling by County section.
Activity continues to be dominated by horizontal drilling:
- 73 rigs are drilling horizontal wells
- 1 rigs are drilling directional wells
- 1 rigs are drilling vertical wells
Bakken Drilling by County
Bakken Oil & Gas News
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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