Bakken Shale

North Dakota officials estimate that 25% of the Bakken Shale’s output could be negatively impacted by a change in energy policy under President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., threatening the 7,000 state-drawn, two-square-mile spacing units that contain all of the state’s future drilling sites. Nearly half (48%) of those units include federal-owned land and/or mineral rights,…

Natural gas is a long-term player and not a transitional fuel for the eight states in which Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp. operates, CEO Linn Evans said Tuesday. During a 3Q2020 earnings call, Evans said he was not expecting any local lockdowns in the utility service areas, with the worst of the Covid-19 impacts…

The controversial Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) secured the final regulatory approval needed to build a pump station and expand others in Illinois, projects that should help it nearly double oil capacity. The Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) this week approved Energy Transfer LP’s plan to build a pump station in Hancock County, IL, and expand other…

Both natural gas and oil production from seven key U.S. onshore plays is set to decline in September, continuing a downtrend that began earlier this year, according to the latest Drilling Productivity Report (DPR) published Monday by the Energy Information Administration (EIA). EIA expects natural gas production from the Anadarko, Appalachian, Denver Julesburg-Niobrara and Permian…

Hess Corp. saw net production from its acreage in the Bakken Shale increase to 194,000 boe/d in the second quarter compared with 140,000 boe/d in the prior-year quarter, with net oil output up 26% to 108,000 b/d. The New York City-based independent attributed the performance to increased wells online and improved well performance. Total second…

Requests for U.S. drilling permits improved in June following a brutal April and May, with the Permian Basin still the top region for operators, according to Evercore ISI. The analyst firm each month compiles permitting statistics for the Lower 48 and offshore using federal and state data. Covid-19 and low commodity prices had crushed permit…

Calling it a “five-alarm fire,” North Dakota’s chief oil and gas regulator on Friday reported record oil and gas production declines during May among a sea of inactive or under-active Bakken Shale wells. May oil production fell 30% to 26.6 million bbl (858,000 b/d), compared to 36.6 million bbls (1.2 million b/d) in April. Natural…

Crude oil can continue to flow on the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL) after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued an administrative stay of a lower court’s July 6 order vacating the pipeline’s water-crossing permits. The purpose of the stay, according to the appeals court, “is to give the court sufficient opportunity…

Producers in North Dakota’s Bakken Shale play are beginning to come to grips with operating without the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) that is now under court order to shut down and be drained by early August. The immediate challenges are how to move up to 300,000 b/d to Gulf Coast refineries, and longer term up…