With Active Drilling Rigs Down in North Dakota, What's CLR Doing -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

The number of active drilling rigs is down a bit in North Dakota, down to 168 from it's all-time high of 174 just a few weeks ago.

With that in mind, I was curious to see what Continental Resources was doing. Had I placed a bet, I would have lost. I am pleasantly surprised.

It is often quoted that CLR has 22 rigs -- in fact that was reported in a SeekingAlpha.com story as recently as yesterday.

This morning I see CLR has 23 rigs on the active drilling rig list.

Even more surprising (for me), is that Whiting is up to 15 on that same list, and I think Whiting is getting better wells.

BEXP has seven rigs on that list.

Hess has fourteen, which is in line which I thought they would after their purchase of Tracker and American Oil and Gas. There are still two "American Oil and Gas" rigs listed.

EOG has eleven rigs.

Fidelity (MDU) has two.

And finally, Oasis has six rigs.