Bakken Rig Count Falls
The Bakken-Three Forks rig count remained flat this week with 26 rigs running across our coverage area by midday Friday.
A total of 431 oil and gas rigs were running across the United States this week, down one from last week. 88 were targeting natural gas (seven more than the previous week) and 343 were targeting oil in the U.S. (eight less than the previous week). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.) 26 of the rigs active in the U.S. were running in North Dakota.
Bakken Oil & Gas Rigs
The Bakken oil rigs were at 26 this week with Bloomberg reporting WTI oil prices climbing to $43.73 on Friday afternoon. WTI-Brent increased this week to $45.11. The Bakken has zero natural active gas rig in the area this week with futures increasing to $2.14/mmbtu by midday.
McKenzie County continues to lead development with 14 rigs 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:
26 rigs are drilling horizontal wells
0 rigs are drilling directional wells
0 rigs are drilling vertical wells
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Bakken Drilling by County
County
State
Previous Week
Current Week
County
State
Previous Week
Current Week
MCKENZIE
MT
14
14
VALLEY
ND
0
0
DUNN
MT
5
5
WIBAUX
ND
0
0
MOUNTRAIL
MT
3
3
BILLINGS
ND
0
0
WILLIAMS
ND
2
2
BOTTINEAU
ND
0
0
DIVIDE
ND
1
1
BURKE
ND
0
0
MCLEAN
MT
1
1
GOLDEN VALLEY
MT
0
0
DANIELS
ND
0
0
MERCER
MT
0
0
DAWSON
MT
0
0
RENVILLE
ND
0
0
FALLON
ND
0
0
STARK
ND
0
0
RICHLAND
ND
0
0
WARD
ND
0
0
ROOSEVELT
MT
0
0
MCHENRY
ND
0
0
SHERIDAN
ND
0
0
MCHENRY
ND
0
0
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