April 2015

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

Written on November 8, 2026, looking back. This issue was not published in April 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 output1,165,033barrels a day1.5% below the month before · 16.9% above a year earlier

Wells reporting oil12,504plus 181 confidential wells whose volumes are withheld; includes 1,785 counted inside unit totals

Wells spudded100oil and gas wells, by spud date

Orders signed87260 spacing and 37 pooling actions

Crude price$46.08a barrel, first purchase$92.37 a year earlier

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

What stood out

More than 12,500 wells reported oil for the first time.

Drilling

100 oil and gas wells have a spud date in April 2015 in the state's wells layer of November 6, 2026. By county: McKenzie 42, Mountrail 21, Dunn 16, Williams 15, Divide 5.

Hearings and orders

87 Industrial Commission orders signed in April 2015 are in the project's order index, with 260 spacing and 37 pooling actions on spacing units. Most frequent applicants: Whiting Oil and Gas Corp. (25), Burlington Resources Oil & Gas Co. LP, (10), Hunt Oil Co. (7). The facts are machine-extracted from the signed orders and not individually reviewed.

Operators

197 operators filed rows in the April 2015 report. Most wells reported: Whiting Oil and Gas Corporation (1,434), Continental Resources, Inc. (1,207), Hess Bakken Investments II, LLC (1,098), XTO Energy Inc (705), Oasis Petroleum North America LLC (696).

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 April 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.