December 2020

North Dakota's oil month in December 2020, from the public record.

Written on November 8, 2026, looking back. This issue was not published in December 2020. 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 output1,192,065barrels a day2.9% below the month before · 19.3% below a year earlier

Wells reporting oil15,273plus 62 confidential wells whose volumes are withheld

Wells spudded47oil and gas wells, by spud date

Orders signed1641 spacing and 2 pooling actions

Crude price$43.57a barrel, first purchase$55.85 a year earlier

Flared share of reported gas6.3%

Oil output, January 2003 to August 2026; the dot marks December 2020.

What stood out

The operator of record changed from Newfield Production Company to Ovintiv Production Inc. on 317 wells.

Drilling

47 oil and gas wells have a spud date in December 2020 in the state's wells layer of November 6, 2026. By county: Mountrail 19, Dunn 17, McKenzie 5, Williams 4, Billings 2.

Hearings and orders

16 Industrial Commission orders signed in December 2020 are in the project's order index, with 41 spacing and 2 pooling actions on spacing units. Most frequent applicants: Marathon Oil Co. (8), Hess Bakken Investments II, LLC (5), Burlington Resources Oil & Gas Co. LP (1). The facts are machine-extracted from the signed orders and not individually reviewed.

Operators

125 operators filed rows in the December 2020 report. Most wells reported: Continental Resources, Inc. (1,934), Hess Bakken Investments II, LLC (1,755), Whiting Oil and Gas Corporation (1,737), Oasis Petroleum North America LLC (1,067), XTO Energy Inc (1,053).

The operator of record changed on 339 wells since their previous report.

Newfield Production Company to Ovintiv Production Inc.: 317 wells
Crescent Point Energy U.S. Corp. to Resource Energy Can-Am LLC: 18 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 2020, 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.