Bakken Shale Play

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Bakken Rig Count Remains Steady

akken Rig Count Stays Flat

The Bakken-Three Forks rig count remained at 69 rigs running across our coverage area.

In recent Bakken news, 22 train cars from a Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF)  train derailed last week causing an evacuation of residents in nearby homes and in a Bakken man camp

Read more: Bakken Train Derailment

The U.S. rig count decreased by two, ending with 874 rigs running by midday Friday.  A total of 209 rigs were targeting natural gas (seven less than the previous week) and 664 were targeting oil in the U.S. (five more than the previous week). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.)70 are in ND alone.

Bakken Oil & Gas Rigs

The Bakken oil rigs stayed at 69 rigs this week with Bloomberg reporting WTI oil prices trading at $46.91/bbl on Friday afternoon, a $1.22 decrease from the previous week. WTI-Brent decreased $2.72 landing to $51.98. The Bakken has zero natural active gas rig in the area this week with futures increasing to $2.71/mmbtu by midday.

McKenzie County continues to lead development and is running 25 running this week, while Williams (17) and Mountrail (11) followed behind. View the full list below under the Bakken Drilling by County section.

Activity continues to be dominated by horizontal drilling:

  • 68 rigs are drilling horizontal wells
  • 0 rigs are drilling directional wells
  • 1 rigs are drilling vertical wells

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

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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