Bakken Shale Rig Count Stays Flat at 191
The Bakken-Three Forks rig count stayed flat at 191 rigs running across our coverage area by the end of last week. The NDIC notes 194 rigs are active in North Dakota, but around 19 of those are in the process of moving in and rigging up.
In recent Bakken news, Conoco Phillips, a major Bakken operator, grew its production by 38% year-over-year to 208,000 boe/d in the Eagle Ford Shale and Bakken Shale plays combined. That’s ~39% of the company’s total production for its Lower 48 asset portfolio. In the Bakken, production grew 19% quarter-on-quarter from 43,000 boe/d to 51,000 boe/d. However, company officials expect for the rate of growth to slow in both plays in the second half of the year due to multi-pad drilling effects and weather-related issues in the fourth quarter.
Read more: Conoco's Bakken Production Up 19% - Q2 2014
The U.S. rig count increased by 18 to 1,914 rigs running by the end of last week. A total of 338 rigs were targeting natural gas (eight more than the previous week) and 1,575 were targeting oil in the U.S. (11 more than the previous week). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.). 192 rigs are running in the Williston Basin across MT, ND, and SD. 183 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 194 rigs are active in North Dakota. That is two more than Baker Hughes reports in the Bakken area, and eleven more 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 19 rigs are in the process of moving in and rigging up.
Bakken Oil & Gas Rigs
The number of oil rigs stayed flat at 191 rigs running by the end of the week . WTI oil prices stayed relatively flat from the previous week, trading at $95.85/bbl on Friday afternoon. Williston Basin Sweet crude traded at $82.69/bbl on Aug. 29th. The WTI-Brent closed up a bit, settling at ~$6 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 $4.08/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 67 rigs running. Dunn, Mountrail, and Williams counties are the only other counties with more than 25 rigs running each. View the full list below under the Bakken Drilling by County section.
Activity is dominated by horizontal drilling:
- 175 rigs are drilling horizontal wells
- 16 rigs are drilling directional wells
- 0 rigs are drilling vertical wells
Bakken Oil & Gas News
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.