December 2013

North Dakota's oil month in December 2013, from the public record.

Written on November 8, 2026, looking back. This issue was not published in December 2013. 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 output927,129barrels a day4.8% below the month before · 21.1% above a year earlier

Wells reporting oil9,886plus 253 confidential wells whose volumes are withheld; includes 1,697 counted inside unit totals

Wells spudded162oil and gas wells, by spud date

Orders signed144424 spacing and 92 pooling actions

Crude price$85.04a barrel, first purchase$82.62 a year earlier

Oil output, January 2003 to August 2026; the dot marks December 2013.

Drilling

162 oil and gas wells have a spud date in December 2013 in the state's wells layer of November 6, 2026. By county: McKenzie 56, Williams 39, Mountrail 25, Dunn 18, Divide 7.

Hearings and orders

144 Industrial Commission orders signed in December 2013 are in the project's order index, with 424 spacing and 92 pooling actions on spacing units. Most frequent applicants: Oasis Petroleum North America LLC (39), Continental Resources, Inc. (16), Hess Corp. (12). The facts are machine-extracted from the signed orders and not individually reviewed.

Operators

191 operators filed rows in the December 2013 report. Most wells reported: Continental Resources, Inc. (859), Whiting Oil and Gas Corporation (835), Hess Bakken Investments II, LLC (770), EOG Resources, Inc. (519), XTO Energy Inc (511).

The operator of record changed on 5 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 2013, 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.