December 2004

North Dakota's oil month in December 2004, from the public record.

Written on November 8, 2026, looking back. This issue was not published in December 2004. It is assembled now from today's public records, with what was known later, so that every month since January 2003 has an issue.

The month in numbers

Oil output92,516barrels a day1.5% above the month before · 14.9% above a year earlier

Wells reporting oil3,375plus 29 confidential wells whose volumes are withheld; includes 1,360 counted inside unit totals

Wells spudded8oil and gas wells, by spud date

Crude price$42.61a barrel, first purchase$29.52 a year earlier

Oil output, January 2003 to August 2026; the dot marks December 2004.

Drilling

8 oil and gas wells have a spud date in December 2004 in the state's wells layer of November 6, 2026. By county: Bowman 3, McKenzie 2, Burke 1, Golden Valley 1, Ward 1.

Operators

149 operators filed rows in the December 2004 report. Most wells reported: Nance Petroleum Corporation (239), Eagle Operating, Inc. (166), Westport Oil & Gas Company, L.P. (151), Whiting Oil and Gas Corporation (135), Petro-Hunt, L.L.C. (122).

A change of operator of record is what the reports show; it does not say why. Sales, mergers, renamed legal entities and new contract operators all look the same. Names are as the reports spell them.

Sources

Oil output and price: U.S. Energy Information Administration, monthly state series (public domain), as published today.
Wells reporting, withheld wells, operators and flared gas: the free NDIC Monthly Production Reports for December 2004, as first reported (PDF print).
Spud dates: the DMR GIS wells layer of November 6, 2026.
Orders: the project's index of signed NDIC orders (facts only; see the well index).

Not an official record of the State of North Dakota. Not engineering, investment or legal advice. Every figure is in the archive data file.