March 2015

North Dakota's oil month in March 2015, from the public record.

Written on November 8, 2026, looking back. This issue was not published in March 2015. 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 output1,182,194barrels a day1.0% above the month before · 22.0% above a year earlier

Wells reporting oil12,410plus 180 confidential wells whose volumes are withheld; includes 1,781 counted inside unit totals

Wells spudded128oil and gas wells, by spud date

Orders signed87247 spacing and 50 pooling actions

Crude price$38.77a barrel, first purchase$91.17 a year earlier

Oil output, January 2003 to August 2026; the dot marks March 2015.

Drilling

128 oil and gas wells have a spud date in March 2015 in the state's wells layer of November 6, 2026. By county: McKenzie 47, Williams 44, Mountrail 26, Dunn 6, Divide 5.

Hearings and orders

87 Industrial Commission orders signed in March 2015 are in the project's order index, with 247 spacing and 50 pooling actions on spacing units. Most frequent applicants: SM Energy Co. (16), Statoil Oil & Gas LP (15), EOG Resources, Inc. (10). The facts are machine-extracted from the signed orders and not individually reviewed.

Operators

198 operators filed rows in the March 2015 report. Most wells reported: Whiting Oil and Gas Corporation (1,413), Continental Resources, Inc. (1,195), Hess Bakken Investments II, LLC (1,073), XTO Energy Inc (689), Oasis Petroleum North America LLC (688).

The operator of record changed on 51 wells since their previous report.

Encore Energy Partners Operating LLC to Vanguard Operating LLC: 48 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 March 2015, 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.