December 2019

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

Written on November 8, 2026, looking back. This issue was not published in December 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 output1,476,903barrels a day2.8% below the month before · 5.3% above a year earlier

Wells reporting oil15,459plus 153 confidential wells whose volumes are withheld

Wells spudded124oil and gas wells, by spud date

Orders signed3816 spacing and 32 pooling actions

Crude price$55.85a barrel, first purchase$37.06 a year earlier

Flared share of reported gas15.7%

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

Drilling

124 oil and gas wells have a spud date in December 2019 in the state's wells layer of November 6, 2026. By county: McKenzie 57, Mountrail 31, Williams 28, Billings 4, Dunn 4.

Hearings and orders

38 Industrial Commission orders signed in December 2019 are in the project's order index, with 16 spacing and 32 pooling actions on spacing units. Most frequent applicants: Whiting Oil and Gas Corp. (11), Marathon Oil Co. (5), XTO Holdings, LLC (5). The facts are machine-extracted from the signed orders and not individually reviewed.

Operators

134 operators filed rows in the December 2019 report. Most wells reported: Continental Resources, Inc. (1,846), Whiting Oil and Gas Corporation (1,711), Hess Bakken Investments II, LLC (1,664), XTO Energy Inc (1,044), Oasis Petroleum North America LLC (1,039).

The operator of record changed on 40 wells since their previous report.

Legacy Reserves Inc to Legacy Reserves Operating LP: 40 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 December 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.