The Bakken-Three Forks rig count climbed by two, ending the week with 24 rigs running across our coverage area by midday Friday.
A total of 413 oil and gas rigs were running across the United States this week, an increase of six over last week. 85 were targeting natural gas (three more than the previous week) and 328 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.) 24 of the rigs active in the U.S. were running in North Dakota.
Bakken Oil & Gas Rigs
Bakken oil rigs rose to 24 this week with Bloomberg reporting WTI oil prices at $48.44 on Friday afternoon. WTI-Brent also gained some, increasing this week to $50.06. The Bakken has zero natural active gas rig in the area this week with futures trading to $2.59/mmbtu by midday.
McKenzie and Dunn Counties lead development with 10 rigs each running this week, far outpacing other counties. View the full list below under the Bakken Drilling by County section.
Activity continues to be dominated by horizontal drilling:
- 24 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.
Read more at bakerhughes.com