Is There a Bust on the Way in the ND Bakken?

The information in this article is summary of an article written by Nick Smith, Bismarck Tribune, “Oil drops 25,000 daily barrels” in September, Bakken Breakout Weekly, November, 2015.

Oil Production in ND dropped more than 20,000 barrels for the second month in a row. September 2015 oil production was at 1,162,253 barrels per day, which is a drop of more than 25,000 barrels from the August 2015 production of 1,187,631 barrels per day. There was a drop of 20,000 barrels per day from July to August 2015.

Currently there is not a lot of drilling taking place in the Bakken, there are an estimated 1,091 wells that were waiting to be completed by fracking in September of 2015, which is up from the 993 in August 2015. This number is expected to grow as companies plan their drilling schedules for the winter season.

The Bakkens active drilling rig count on November 2015 was 64, on December 2, 2015 the active drilling rig count was 66. On November 13, 2014 the active drilling rig count was 188. Total producing wells in September 2015 were at 13,025 down from 13,031 in August 2015.

Natural gas production was down also, in September 2015 production numbers were 1.6 billion cubic feet per day, compared with 1.65 billion cubic feet per day for August 2015. 

Source: Paul Thares, South Dakota State University