Flashback: The Early Bakken -- History Of The Bakken -- June 12, 2024

Locator: 47827HISTORY.

For the archives. The early Bakken.

I'm in the process of moving / transcribing my scores of handwritten and typewritten journals, diaries and notes to the web. 

This from December 27, 2009:

On another note: my dad says the word on the street is that 90 wells a year will be drilled for the next 20 years in Williams County. Is that possible? Rough calculations: there will soon be 100 rigs in North Dakota. A well can now be drilled in less than 30 days but let’s take time off for refurbishing wells, etc., and just say a rig drills 10 wells a year: that’s a 1,000 wells/year in North Dakota. 

Right now there are about four counties where most of the work is being done: Mountrail, McKenzie, Williams and Dunn. But in addition, there’s Burke, Bottineau, McLean, Mercer, Golden Valley, etc. Let’s say 50% in Mountrail, 10% in each of the other “big four,” and 10% for all the rest. 10% of 1,000 wells is a conservative 100 wells next year in Williams County. Whether it can sustain for 20 years is another story, and, of course, for it to continue, they need to continue getting good wells. Time will tell. But 100 wells in Williams County is huge.

How did things turn out?

CY 2023:

• 859 oil and gas permits were issued
• 187 of those permits were for wells in Williams County

CY2022:

• 814 oil and gas permits were issued
• 253 of those permits were for wells in Williams County

CY2017:

• 1189 oil and gas permits were issued
• 319 of those permits were for wells in Williams County