December 2005

North Dakota's oil month in December 2005, from the public record.

Written on November 8, 2026, looking back. This issue was not published in December 2005. 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 output104,258barrels a day0.9% below the month before · 12.7% above a year earlier

Wells reporting oil3,418plus 27 confidential wells whose volumes are withheld; includes 1,414 counted inside unit totals

Wells spudded20oil and gas wells, by spud date

Crude price$53.85a barrel, first purchase$42.61 a year earlier

Oil output, January 2003 to August 2026; the dot marks December 2005.

Drilling

20 oil and gas wells have a spud date in December 2005 in the state's wells layer of November 6, 2026. By county: Bowman 5, Bottineau 4, Divide 3, McKenzie 3, Billings 2.

Operators

149 operators filed rows in the December 2005 report. Most wells reported: Nance Petroleum Corporation (267), Eagle Operating, Inc. (154), Westport Oil & Gas Company, L.P. (148), Whiting Oil and Gas Corporation (139), Petro-Hunt, L.L.C. (123).

The operator of record changed on 2 wells since their previous report. No single change covered five or more wells.

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 2005, 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.