Bakken Shale Play

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Bakken Rig Count Down to 76

Rig Count Falls by One

The Bakken-Three Forks rig count declined by one to end the week at 76 rigs running across our coverage area.

In recent Bakken news, well completions in the area rose sharply last month, according to the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources (DMR). The DMR reports a preliminary completion count for March was 189, up 350% from 42 the previous month.

Read more: Bakken Well Completions Spike

The U.S. rig count fell by 10, ending with 875 rigs running by midday Friday.  A total of 225 rigs were targeting natural gas (an increase of three from the previous week) and 646 were targeting oil in the U.S. (13than the previous week). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.)77 rigs are running in the Williston Basin across MT, ND, and SD. 77 are in ND alone.

Bakken Oil & Gas Rigs

The Bakken oil rigs stayed at 76 rigs this week with Bloomberg reporting WTI oil prices trading at $60.21/bbl on Friday afternoon, a $.49 increase from the previous week. WTI-Brent increased $.02 landing at $65.39. The Bakken has zero natural active gas rig in the area this week with futures trading dipping to $2.65/mmbtu by midday.

McKenzie County continues to lead development this week at 33 running rigs. Williams (19) and Mountrail (13) counties are the next closest producers. View the full list below under the Bakken Drilling by County section.

Activity continues to be dominated by horizontal drilling:

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

Be sure to visit our Bakken Job Listings to search openings and come back weekly for updates or sign up for alerts - Daily or Weekly Email Alerts

Bakken Drilling by County

 

Bakken Oil & Gas News

Whiting Announces Strong First Quarter

Continental Resources Aggressively Cuts Costs

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.

Read more at bakerhughes.com