Bakken Rig Count Falls
The Bakken-Three Forks rig count fell this week with 24 rigs running across our coverage area by midday Friday.
A total of 405 oil and gas rigs were running across the United States this week, down nine from last week. 87 were targeting natural gas (one more than the previous week) and 318 were targeting oil in the U.S. (10 less 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 fell to 24 this week with Bloomberg reporting WTI oil prices rising to $46.21 on Friday afternoon. WTI-Brent also gained some, increasing this week to $47.83. The Bakken has zero natural active gas rig in the area this week with futures trading to $2.10/mmbtu by midday.
McKenzie County continues to lead development with 12 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:
24 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
12
12
SHERIDAN
MT
0
0
DUNN
MT
5
4
VALLEY
ND
0
0
MOUNTRAIL
ND
3
3
WIBAUX
ND
0
0
WILLIAMS
2
2
BOTTINEAU
ND
0
0
BILLINGS
ND
0
1
BURKE
ND
0
0
DIVIDE
MT
2
1
GOLDEN VALLEY
MT
0
0
MCLEAN
MT
1
1
MERCER
ND
0
0
DANIELS
ND
0
0
RENVILLE
ND
0
0
DAWSON
MT
0
0
STARK
ND
0
0
FALLON
ND
0
0
WARD
ND
0
0
RICHLAND
ND
0
0
MCHENRY
0
0
ROOSEVELT
MT
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