The Bakken-Three Forks rig count dropped again this week, with Baker Hughes reporting 35 rigs running across our coverage area by midday Friday.
In recent Bakken news, Marathon Oil announced their 2016 results last week including plans to increase Bakken Shale activity.
Read more: Marathon Announces 2017 Bakken Plan
A total of 754 oil and gas rigs were running across the United States this week, an increase of four over than last week. 151 rigs targeted natural gas (2 less than the previous week) and 602 were targeting oil in the U.S. (five more than the previous week). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.) 34 of the rigs active in the U.S. were running in North Dakota.
Bakken Oil & Gas Rigs
Bakken oil rigs were at 35 this week with Bloomberg reporting WTI oil prices increasing to $53.99 on Friday afternoon. The Bakken has zero natural active gas rig in the area this week with futures trading at $2.79/mmbtu by midday.
McKenzie County leads production in the region with 18 rigs running this week. View the full list below under the Bakken Drilling by County section.
Activity continues to be dominated by horizontal drilling:
- 35 rigs are drilling horizontal wells
- 0 rigs are drilling directional wells
- 0 rigs are drilling vertical wells
Rig Count by County
Bakken Shale Rig Count 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.