January 2021

North Dakota's oil month in January 2021, from the public record.

Written on November 8, 2026, looking back. This issue was not published in January 2021. 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 output1,147,710barrels a day3.7% below the month before · 19.8% below a year earlier

Wells reporting oil15,362plus 64 confidential wells whose volumes are withheld

Wells spudded19oil and gas wells, by spud date

Orders signed2186 spacing and 6 pooling actions

Crude price$46.14a barrel, first purchase$53.65 a year earlier

Flared share of reported gas6.2%

Oil output, January 2003 to August 2026; the dot marks January 2021.

Drilling

19 oil and gas wells have a spud date in January 2021 in the state's wells layer of November 6, 2026. By county: Mountrail 9, Dunn 4, McKenzie 3, Williams 3.

Hearings and orders

21 Industrial Commission orders signed in January 2021 are in the project's order index, with 86 spacing and 6 pooling actions on spacing units. Most frequent applicants: Hess Bakken Investments II, LLC (8), Burlington Resources Oil & Gas Co. LP (4), Continental Resources, Inc. (2). The facts are machine-extracted from the signed orders and not individually reviewed.

Operators

122 operators filed rows in the January 2021 report. Most wells reported: Continental Resources, Inc. (1,935), Hess Bakken Investments II, LLC (1,755), Whiting Oil and Gas Corporation (1,741), Oasis Petroleum North America LLC (1,068), XTO Energy Inc (1,053).

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 January 2021, 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.