August 2017

North Dakota's oil month in August 2017, from the public record.

Written on November 8, 2026, looking back. This issue was not published in August 2017. 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 output1,089,258barrels a day3.9% above the month before · 10.9% above a year earlier

Wells reporting oil13,547plus 161 confidential wells whose volumes are withheld

Wells spudded95oil and gas wells, by spud date

Orders signed53103 spacing and 26 pooling actions

Crude price$44.25a barrel, first purchase$38.53 a year earlier

Flared share of reported gas13.3%

Oil output, January 2003 to August 2026; the dot marks August 2017.

Drilling

95 oil and gas wells have a spud date in August 2017 in the state's wells layer of November 6, 2026. By county: McKenzie 28, Williams 27, Dunn 23, Mountrail 13, Burke 2.

Hearings and orders

53 Industrial Commission orders signed in August 2017 are in the project's order index, with 103 spacing and 26 pooling actions on spacing units. Most frequent applicants: Whiting Oil and Gas Corp. (11), Liberty Resources Management Co. LLC (7), Resource Energy Can-Am LLC (6). The facts are machine-extracted from the signed orders and not individually reviewed.

Operators

141 operators filed rows in the August 2017 report. Most wells reported: Whiting Oil and Gas Corporation (1,495), Hess Bakken Investments II, LLC (1,489), Continental Resources, Inc. (1,477), XTO Energy Inc (931), Oasis Petroleum North America LLC (901).

The operator of record changed on 1 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 August 2017, as first reported (workbook).
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.