The Bakken-Three Forks rig count remains sluggish with Baker Hughes reporting 28 rigs running across our coverage area by midday Friday.
In recent Bakken news, construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline came to a halt as demonstrations turned violent over the holiday weekend.
Read more: Violence Erupts at Pipeline Protest
A total of 506 oil and gas rigs were running across the United States this week, an increase of 11 from last week of two. 92 rigs targeted natural gas (four more than the previous week) and 414 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.) 28 of the rigs active in the U.S. were running in North Dakota.
Bakken Oil & Gas Rigs
Bakken oil rigs were at 28 this week with Bloomberg reporting WTI oil prices increasing to $45.88 on Friday afternoon. WTI-Brent also gained with Bloomberg reporting $47.88. The Bakken has zero natural active gas rig in the area this week with futures trading at $2.80/mmbtu by midday.
McKenzie County leads development with 13 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
- 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.