The Bakken rig count fell one rig this past week to settle at 183 running in the region. Expect the small declines over the past few weeks to reverse if oil prices hold above $100/bbl for an extended period.

The U.S. rig count is up 11 to 1,770, of which 184 are running in the Williston Basin. A total of 369 rigs are targeting natural gas and 1,395 are targeting oil in the U.S. The remainder are drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.).

While there was an operational slow down due to wet weather in May, it did not affect production levels. North Dakota out performed expectations and set a new production records with over 810,000 b/d of crude oil production and more than 899 mmcfd of natural gas production. You can read more in the article - Bakken Oil Production Record Set In May Despite Wet Weather.

Note: The NDIC reports 189 rigs are active in North Dakota. That is 15 more than Baker Hughes reports. The difference is likely accounted for in the number of rigs actually working. 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. Those rigs are not counted in the Baker Hughes census.

Bakken Oil & Gas Rigs

The natural gas rig count in the region held flat at zero. Natural gas futures (Henry Hub) were trading near $3.79/mmbtu on Friday afternoon.

The number of oil rigs running fell by one to 183 in the region. WTI prices have held well above $100 per barrel over the past two weeks. The oil benchmark was trading over $108/bbl on Friday. Williston Basin Sweet crude traded at $98.19/bbl on July 18th.

McKenzie County led development with 68 rigs running. Dunn, Mountrail, and Williams counties are the only other counties with more than 19 rigs running. View the full list below.

Bakken Oil & Gas News:

• Bakken Ethane Pipeline Gets State Department Approval
• Bakken Oil Production Record Set In May of 2013
• Samson Oil & Gas Selling Bakken Assets In Montana

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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.