The Bakken-Three Forks rig count fell two more this week to 77 rigs running across our coverage area by midday Friday.
In recent Bakken news, An energy poll by the University of Texas found that less than half of the 2000 people surveyed were even familiar with the Keystone XL Pipeline, the controversial pipeline that would carry millions of barrels of crude from Canada to Texas.
Read more: Most Americans Aren’t Familiar with Keystone
The U.S. rig count fell by three, ending with 885 rigs running by midday Friday. A total of 222 rigs were targeting natural gas (a decrease of one from the previous week) and 659 were targeting oil in the U.S. (one less than the previous week). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.)78 rigs are running in the Williston Basin across MT, ND, and SD. 77 are in ND alone.
Bakken Oil & Gas Rigs
The Bakken oil rigs stayed at 77 rigs this week with Bloomberg reporting WTI oil prices trading at $59.72/bbl on Friday afternoon, a $.21 increase from the previous week. WTI-Brent decreased $1.33, landing at $65.37. The Bakken has zero natural active gas rig in the area this week with futures trading dipping to $2.89/mmbtu by midday.
McKenzie County continues to lead development this week at 33 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:
- 77 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