Bakken-Three Forks rig count was unmoved last week, with Baker Hughes reporting 53 rigs running through our coverage area by Friday midday.

Rig counts across the United States are also down. 

In recent Bakken Shale news, Continental Resources reports its Bakken team doubled their rate of return during the second quarter while achieving impressive efficiency gains.

Continental Touts Bakken Innovation

A total of 949 oil and gas rigs were running across the United States this week, eight more than last week. 181 rigs targeted natural gas (eight less than the previous week) and 768 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.)   53 of the rigs active in the U.S. were running in North Dakota.

Bakken Oil & Gas Rigs

Bakken oil rigs were at 53 this week with Bloomberg reporting WTI oil prices at $48.82 on Friday afternoon. The Bakken has zero natural active gas rig in the area this week with futures trading at $2.98/mmbtu by midday.

McKenzie County leads activity in the region with 21 rigs running this week. View the full list below under the Bakken Drilling by County section.

Activity continues to be dominated by horizontal drilling:

• 52 rigs are drilling horizontal wells
• 1 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.