The Bakken-Three Forks rig count stayed flat this week at 80 rigs running across our coverage area by midday Friday.
In recent Bakken news, the first U.S. refinery built in over 30 years began operations this week at the new Dakota Prairie refinery, located on 375 acres in Stark County, four miles west of Dickinson, N.D
Read more: New Bakken Refinery Begins Operations
The U.S. rig count fell again this week by 11 ending, ending with 894 rigs running by midday Friday. A total of 221 rigs were targeting natural gas (and decrease of one from the previous week) and 668 were targeting oil in the U.S. (11 less than the previous week). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.)80 rigs are running in the Williston Basin across MT, ND, and SD. 80 are in ND alone.
Bakken Oil & Gas Rigs
The Bakken oil rigs stayed at 80 rigs this week and WTI oil prices continued to climb trading at $59.39/bbl on Friday afternoon, a $.63 increase from the previous week. The WTI-Brent saw an increase of $.74, landing at $66.02. The Bakken has zero natural active gas rig in the area this week with futures trading increasing to $2.88/mmbtu by midday.
McKenzie County continues to lead development this week by climbing two to 34 running rigs. Williams (19) 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:
- 80 rigs are drilling horizontal wells
- 0 rigs are drilling directional wells
- 0 rigs are drilling vertical wells
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