October 2019

North Dakota's oil month in October 2019, from the public record.

Written on November 8, 2026, looking back. This issue was not published in October 2019. 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 output1,518,710barrels a day5.2% above the month before · 9.0% above a year earlier

Wells reporting oil15,521plus 192 confidential wells whose volumes are withheld

Wells spudded85oil and gas wells, by spud date

Orders signed76162 spacing and 42 pooling actions

Crude price$47.92a barrel, first purchase$67.14 a year earlier

Flared share of reported gas17.4%

Oil output, January 2003 to August 2026; the dot marks October 2019.

What stood out

Oil output passed 1,500,000 barrels a day for the first time in the EIA monthly record, which begins in 1981.

Drilling

85 oil and gas wells have a spud date in October 2019 in the state's wells layer of November 6, 2026. By county: McKenzie 35, Mountrail 25, Williams 15, Dunn 8, Billings 1.

Hearings and orders

76 Industrial Commission orders signed in October 2019 are in the project's order index, with 162 spacing and 42 pooling actions on spacing units. Most frequent applicants: Whiting Oil and Gas Corp. (15), Continental Resources, Inc. (13), Slawson Exploration Co., Inc. (7). The facts are machine-extracted from the signed orders and not individually reviewed.

Operators

135 operators filed rows in the October 2019 report. Most wells reported: Continental Resources, Inc. (1,825), Whiting Oil and Gas Corporation (1,699), Hess Bakken Investments II, LLC (1,641), XTO Energy Inc (1,041), Oasis Petroleum North America LLC (1,039).

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 October 2019, 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.