Weekly Bakken Summary

Bakken activity remains high with 114 rigs active as of May 14. By county, the numbers are as follows...

- Bottineau - 1
- Bowman- 3
- Burke - 5
- Divide - 7
- Dunn - 21
- Golden Valley - 1
- McKenzie - 16
- Mountrail - 39
- Stark - 1
- Williams - 21

A total of 30 rigs either commenced drilling or were moving in and rigging up this week. Interest appears to be picking up in Burke County, with five drillers--Oasis, Eagle, Cornerstone, Sagebrush and Hess--either posting start dates or moving in and rigging up over the past ten days.

In Dunn County, one rig each from Continental and Anschutz commenced drilling on May 11, while seven rigs are moving in and rigging up. Mountrail County saw an active week as well, with EOG commencing work with four rigs, all on May 12. Whiting had three rigs moving in and rigging up. Slawson and Fidelity had one each.

McKenzie and Williams counties saw little new activity. Peak Grasslands was reported to be moving in and rigging up in McKenzie. American Oil and gas starting drilling in Williams on 5/12.

A total of 33 permits were issued this week. Of these, nine were issued to Continental (eight in Dunn country and one in Bowman). Hess obtained one permit each in Burke and Divide counties and two in Mountrail. Other companies given permits include Whiting, Oasis and Brigham with three and Newfield with two.

Flowback rates revealed this week as well files were released from confidentiality status ranged from 267 bopd for a Continental well in Bowman county to 2037 bopd for a Brigham well in Mountrail county. Following Brigham on the top of the list were XTO with 1768 in Dunn county and Slawson with 981 in Mountrail.

Source: North Dakota Industrial Commission