The Bakken-Three Forks rig count dipped last week, with Baker Hughes reporting 47 rigs running through our coverage area by Friday midday. The total number of drilling rigs across the country continues to increase slowly.  

A total of 915 oil and gas rigs were running across the United States this week, eight more than last week. 177 rigs were targeting natural gas (+8) and 738 were targeting oil in the U.S. (+0). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.) 47 of the rigs active in the U.S. were running in North Dakota.

Bakken Oil & Gas Rigs

47 rigs targeted oil in the Bakken this week with Bloomberg reporting WTI oil prices at $56.55 on Friday afternoon. The Bakken has zero natural active gas rig in the area this week with commodity futures trading at $3.10/mmbtu by midday.

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McKenzie County leads activity in the region with 20 rigs running this week. View the full list below under the Bakken Drilling by County section.

Activity continues to be dominated by horizontal drilling:

• 47 rigs are drilling horizontal wells
• 0 rigs are drilling directional wells
• 0 rigs are drilling vertical wells

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.