For the third week in a row, the Bakken-Three Forks rig count has stalled with Baker Hughes reporting 27 rigs running across our coverage area by midday Friday.
In recent Bakken news, Australian-based, Samson Oil & Gas Ltd. plans to sell its interest in the North Stockyard field in North Dakota in order to reduce its debt. The deal is scheduled to close on August 31st, 2016.
Read more: Samson Sells Bakken Assets
A total of 460 oil and gas rigs were running across the United States this week, up one from last week. 86 were targeting natural gas (two less than the previous week) and 374 were targeting oil in the U.S. (three 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 dipping to $41.60 on Friday afternoon. WTI-Brent also ended the week lower with Bloomberg reporting $43.53. The Bakken has zero natural active gas rig in the area this week with futures trading at $2.88/mmbtu by midday.
McKenzie County leads development 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:
- 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.