97 active rigs in North Dakota today. This sets a new record high for the current oil boom that began in North Dakota in 2006.
Yesterday, NDIC reported 95 active rigs, which tied the previous record: here is what I posted yesterday about that announcement.
Update, February 26, 2010: for the past couple of days, the NDIC reports that there are 96 active rigs in North Dakota, one less than the "97" reported above (first posted February 23, 2010). The number of active rigs will fluctuate up and down by two or three on any given day. Rigs are not considered active when they are being moved from site to site. For all I know there could be four more rigs moving in and rigging up (MIRU) as "we speak," and we could see a pop to 100 next week. More likely, however, we will see the numbers fluctuate up and down by one or two rigs going forward. February 26, 2010.