The Bakken-Three Forks rig count increased by one this week, with Baker Hughes reporting 43 rigs running across our coverage area by midday Friday.
In recent Bakken Shale news, North Dakota taxpayers must foot the bill for nearly $40 million from the protests over the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Read more: Pipeline Protests Will Cost Taxpayers Millions
A total of 847 oil and gas rigs were running across the United States this week, an increase of eight over than last week. 163 rigs targeted natural gas (three less than the previous week) and 683 were targeting oil in the U.S. (11 more than the previous week). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.) 43 of the rigs active in the U.S. were running in North Dakota.
Bakken Oil & Gas Rigs
Bakken oil rigs were at 43 this week with Bloomberg reporting WTI oil prices increasing to $53.18 on Friday afternoon. The Bakken has zero natural active gas rig in the area this week with futures trading at $3.23/mmbtu by midday.
McKenzie County leads production 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:
- 42 rigs are drilling horizontal wells
- 0 rigs are drilling directional wells
- 1 rigs are drilling vertical wells
Rig Count by County
Bakken Shale 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.
