Bakken Rig Count Slides Back to 27

The Bakken-Three Forks rig count dropped back down this week with Baker Hughes reporting 27 rigs running across our coverage area by midday Friday.

In recent Bakken news, Lynn Helms, the director of the N.D. Department of Mineral Resources, spoke to a U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee last week lending his voice to the growing opposition to the proposed regulations by the Environmental Protection Agency. 

Read more: Lynn Helms Testifies About Clean Air Act

A total of 446 oil and gas rigs were running across the United States this week, up seven over last week. 89 were targeting natural gas (one more than the previous week) and 357 were targeting oil in the U.S. (six 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 increasing to $45.95 on Friday afternoon. WTI-Brent was also up to ending the week at $47.61. The Bakken has zero natural active gas rig in the area this week with futures trading at $2.76/mmbtu by midday.

McKenzie County leads development with 12 rigs running this week, far outpacing other counties. View the full list below under the Bakken Drilling by County section.

Activity continues to be dominated by horizontal drilling:

  • 27 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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