The Bakken-Three Forks rig count fell back to August numbers this week with Baker Hughes reporting 27 rigs running across our coverage area by midday Friday.
In recent Bakken news, North Dakota's Department of Mineral Resources released the latest data showing that state oil production dropped 2% in June, falling to its lowest level since 2014.
Read more: North Dakota Production Data
A total of 505 oil and gas rigs were running across the United States this week, a decrease of 1 from last week of two. 89 rigs targeted natural gas (three less than the previous week) and 416 were targeting oil in the U.S. (two more than the previous week). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.) 27 of the rigs active in the U.S. were running in North Dakota.
Bakken Oil & Gas Rigs
Bakken oil rigs were at 27 this week with Bloomberg reporting WTI oil prices dropping to $43.03 on Friday afternoon. WTI-Brent also fell with Bloomberg reporting $45.77. The Bakken has zero natural active gas rig in the area this week with futures trading at $2.95/mmbtu by midday.
McKenzie County leads development with 12 rigs running this week. View the full list below under theBakken Drilling by County section.
Activity continues to be dominated by horizontal drilling:
- 26 rigs are drilling horizontal wells
- 1 rigs are drilling directional wells
- 0 rigs are drilling vertical wells
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.