The Bakken-Three Forks rig count gained two this week with Baker Hughes reporting 30 rigs running across our coverage area by midday Friday.
In recent Bakken news, a judge granted Paradigm Energy Partners permission to temporarily continue construction on the Sacagawea pipeline, while the situation is under investigation. Last month the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation demanded that work be halted because the company could not promise that their water supplies would remain safe.
Read more: Tribes Halt Second Pipeline
A total of 521 oil and gas rigs were running across the United States this week, an increase of 11 from last week of two. 96 rigs targeted natural gas (four more than the previous week) and 425 were targeting oil in the U.S. (seven more than the previous week). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.) 30 of the rigs active in the U.S. were running in North Dakota.
Bakken Oil & Gas Rigs
Bakken oil rigs were at 30 this week with Bloomberg reporting WTI oil prices gaining $3.76 to $48.24 on Friday afternoon. WTI-Brent was also up with Bloomberg reporting $50.19. The Bakken has zero natural active gas rig in the area this week with futures trading at $2.90/mmbtu by midday.
Dunn County leads production in the region with 11 rigs running this week. View the full list below under the Bakken Drilling by County section.
Activity continues to be dominated by horizontal drilling:
- 28 rigs are drilling horizontal wells
- 2 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.