Bakken Rig Count Inches Higher this Week

The Bakken-Three Forks rig count gained one this week with Baker Hughes reporting 28 rigs running across our coverage area by midday Friday.

In recent Bakken news, Energy Transfer Partners, L.P. announced it will sell 36.75% of the Bakken Pipeline Project to Marathon and Enbridge. 

Read more: Dalrymple Issues State of Emergency

A total of 495 oil and gas rigs were running across the United States this week, an increase of eight from last week of two.  88 rigs targeted natural gas (seven more than the previous week) and 407 were targeting oil in the U.S. (one more than the previous week). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.) 28 of the rigs active in the U.S. were running in North Dakota.

Bakken Oil & Gas Rigs

Bakken oil rigs were at 28 this week with Bloomberg reporting WTI oil prices dipping to $44.44 on Friday afternoon. WTI-Brent also fell backwards with Bloomberg reporting $46.83. 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 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:

  • 28 rigs are drilling horizontal wells
  • 0 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.

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