The Bakken Shale drilling rig count fell three rigs this past week to settle at 185 running. That's the first decline since mid-May and first change in June. North Dakota accounts for 175 rigs and Montana accounts for 10.

The U.S. rig count fell 11 rigs to 1,748 rigs running, of which 186 are running in the Williston Basin. A total of 353 rigs are targeting natural gas and 1,390 are targeting oil in the U.S.. The remainder are drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.).

The week got off to a rough start when McKenzie County was forced to implement a truck ban on gravel roads. It was the wettest May on record and things simply haven't let up in June. More than nine inches of rain have fallen in the area before this week started. Recent rain has caused damage that could cost as much as $50 million to fix. Read more in the article Wet Weather Forcing Delays In The Bakken

Note: The NDIC reports 189 rigs are active in North Dakota. That is 14 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 fell one rig to settle at zero running. Natural gas futures (Henry Hub) fell $0.20 to end the week down near $3.59/mmbtu on Friday afternoon. That's a fall of $0.80 since the high of $4.40/mmbtu in April.

The number of oil rigs running fell by two to 185 in the region. WTI futures rebounded with the broader equity markets during the week and ended near $97/bbl on Friday. Williston Basin sweet crude traded at $84.68/bbl on June 27th.

McKenzie County led development with 70 rigs running. Dunn, Mountrail, and Williams counties are the only other counties with more than 20 rigs running. View the full list below.

Bakken Oil & Gas News:

• Wet Weather Forcing Delays In The Bakken
• Bakken Oil Moving To The Pacific Northwest
• Summit Midstream Expanding Divide & Williams Counties Gathering

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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.