Weekly Bakken Summary

The number of active rigs in the state stands at 116, up two from last week. The numbers by county are as follows...

Bottineau - 2
Bowman - 3
Burke - 4
Divide - 7
Dunn - 20
Golden Valley - 1
McLean - 1
McKenzie - 17
Mountrail - 37
Stark - 2
Williams - 22

A total of 15 rigs posted start dates this week  Two of these were in Bottineau County where EOG Resouces and Sagebrush Resources posted start dates of 5/18 and 5/2, respectively. Baytex Energy started work in Divide County on 5/20, while Questar reported a new rig working in McLean County as of the same date. Other drillers are moving in and rigging up in other areas outside the Bakken hotbed. These include Continental, which is moving a third rig into Bowman County, and Whiting, which is moving a second rig into Stark.

Newfield, Encore, Continental and Marathon all activated new rigs in Dunn County during the week. Brigham and Whiting started up new rigs in Mountrail, while XTO began drilling in McKenzie. XTO and Brigham activated one new rig each in Williams Country, while Continental activated two.

A total of 26 new permits were issued this week. Five of these went to Continental, including one each in Divide and Bowman Counties. Other permits issued for projects outside the Bakken hotbed include one to Cornerstone in Burke County, one to Whiting in Billings Country, and one to EOG in Bottineau County. (For a list of this week's permits, click on drilling permits in the topics sidebar at the right.)

Initial flowback rates shown on well files released from confidentiality status this week ranged from 289 bopd for a Contintental well in Divide Country to 1138 bopd for an Anschutz well in Dunn County. Following Anschutz at the high end of the list were Continental with 839 bopd in Williams County and Marathon with 681 in Dunn County. (For a complete list of this week's reported flowback rates, click on initial flow rates in the topics sidebar at the right.)

Source: North Dakota Industrial Commission