The Bakken-Three Forks rig count decreased by one to 192 rigs running across our coverage area by the end of last week. The NDIC notes 190 rigs are active in North Dakota, but around 13 of those are in the process of moving in and rigging up.
In recent Bakken news, The Bakken Shale is expected to produce 1.193-million b/d of oil in November, up 22% from the same time last year, according to theEnergy Information Administration’s (EIA) Drilling Productivity Report. October’s total production from the play is expected to be 1.164-million b/d.
Read more: Bakken Shale Expected to Hit 1.19-Million b/d in Nov. 2014
The U.S. rig count decreased by 12 to 1,918 rigs running by the end of last week. A total of 328 rigs were targeting natural gas (eight more than the previous week) and 1,590 were targeting oil in the U.S. (19 less than the previous week). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.). 193 rigs are running in the Williston Basin across MT, ND, and SD. 181 are in ND alone.
Not all rigs counted in our census are drilling for the Bakken, but it's close. The NDIC estimates 95% or more of activity in this region targets the Bakken and Three Forks formations.
Note: The NDIC reports 190 rigs are active in North Dakota. That is three less than Baker Hughes reports in the Bakken area, and nine less than the company reports in North Dakota. 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. The NDIC notes that around 13 rigs are in the process of moving in and rigging up.
Bakken Oil & Gas Rigs
The number of oil rigs decreased by one to 192 rigs running by the end of the week . WTI oil prices decreased by less than $1.00 from the previous week, trading at $83.15/bbl on Friday afternoon. Williston Basin Sweet crude traded at $64.44/bbl on Oct. 16th. The WTI-Brent closed up a bit, settling at just over $3 by the end of last week.
The natural gas rig count in the region held flat at zero. Natural gas futures (Henry Hub) were trading at $3.77/mmbtu by the end of last week. A little more than 10% of the production stream from the Bakken and Three Forks is attributable to natural gas and roughly half of that is NGLs.
McKenzie County continues to lead development with 64 rigs running. Mountrail, and Williams counties are the only other counties with more than 30 rigs running each. View the full list below under the Bakken Drilling by County section.
Activity is dominated by horizontal drilling:
- 173 rigs are drilling horizontal wells
- 16 rigs are drilling directional wells
- 3 rigs are drilling vertical wells
Bakken Oil & Gas News
- Bakken Drillers Could Be Forced to Scale Back 2015 Efforts
- Bakken Shale Expected to Hit 1.19 Million b/d in Nov. 2014
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.