May 2014

North Dakota's oil month in May 2014, from the public record.

Written on November 8, 2026, looking back. This issue was not published in May 2014. 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 output1,029,581barrels a day3.3% above the month before · 27.5% above a year earlier

Wells reporting oil10,766plus 253 confidential wells whose volumes are withheld; includes 1,724 counted inside unit totals

Wells spudded219oil and gas wells, by spud date

Orders signed44339 spacing and 5 pooling actions

Crude price$92.94a barrel, first purchase$88.97 a year earlier

Oil output, January 2003 to August 2026; the dot marks May 2014.

What stood out

Oil output passed 1,000,000 barrels a day for the first time in the EIA monthly record, which begins in 1981.

Drilling

219 oil and gas wells have a spud date in May 2014 in the state's wells layer of November 6, 2026. By county: McKenzie 71, Williams 43, Mountrail 40, Dunn 29, Divide 15.

Hearings and orders

44 Industrial Commission orders signed in May 2014 are in the project's order index, with 339 spacing and 5 pooling actions on spacing units. Most frequent applicants: Marathon Oil Co. (5), WPX Energy Williston, LLC (5), Continental Resources, Inc. (3). The facts are machine-extracted from the signed orders and not individually reviewed.

Operators

198 operators filed rows in the May 2014 report. Most wells reported: Continental Resources, Inc. (968), Whiting Oil and Gas Corporation (912), Hess Bakken Investments II, LLC (837), XTO Energy Inc (558), Oasis Petroleum North America LLC (549).

The operator of record changed on 6 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 May 2014, 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.