The Bakken: Sort Of Flatlined -- The Financial Times -- November 16, 2021

The Bakken: "sort of flatlined." -- The Financial Times. Archived. If you are initially unable to get around the paywall, consider googling: The birthplace of America's oil boom a decade ago is struggling to recover from last year's market crash.

• the Bakken: huge headline story in the Financial Times: behind a paywall; "The birthplace of America's oil boom a decade ago is struggling to recover from last year's market crash even as crude prices have surged back to $80 a barrel"
• not to worry: consider the source
• same ol' stuff
• article seems to be in response to CLR's entry into the Permian

From the article:

Tony Barrett, vice-president of exploration at Continental Resources, the Bakken’s largest producer, said the region is still in “the middle innings” of its development and sees scope for more growth from the region. 

Continental, owned by billionaire oilman Harold Hamm, a high-profile backer of former president Donald Trump, spent $3.25bn this month acquiring lands from Pioneer Natural Resources in the Permian basin, which spans Texas and New Mexico.

Barrett told the Financial Times it was “absolutely not true” they did the deal because of a lack of “inventory” in the Bakken, saying the company could expand for another decade without the Permian assets. 

Still, the deal echoes a broader shift of spending and industry activity away from ageing shale areas like the Bakken and towards the Permian, which is seen by investors as the most viable growth engine for companies.

The same old memes:

In addition to the dwindling high-quality well prospects, persistently high level of flaring — when unmarketable natural gas is burnt off at well sites — has also led some operators to turn away from the basin. “The easiest way to clean up your emissions profile is to divest your dirtiest assets,” Diederichs said, pointing as an example to Norway’s oil major Equinor, which sold its Bakken business earlier this year.

As usual, the writer fails to mention that the state has met / surpassed flaring goals and never compares the Bakken flaring to that of the Permian or the Mideast.

And, of course, Equinor leaving the Bakken had nothing to do with flaring. LOL.