March 2021

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

Written on November 8, 2026, looking back. This issue was not published in March 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 output1,109,000barrels a day2.3% above the month before · 22.7% below a year earlier

Wells reporting oil15,738plus 31 confidential wells whose volumes are withheld

Wells spudded53oil and gas wells, by spud date

Orders signed10208 spacing and 4 pooling actions

Crude price$57.17a barrel, first purchase$28.64 a year earlier

Flared share of reported gas6.3%

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

Drilling

53 oil and gas wells have a spud date in March 2021 in the state's wells layer of November 6, 2026. By county: Dunn 21, Mountrail 17, Williams 11, McKenzie 3, Billings 1.

Hearings and orders

10 Industrial Commission orders signed in March 2021 are in the project's order index, with 208 spacing and 4 pooling actions on spacing units. Most frequent applicants: Continental Resources, Inc. (6), Whiting Oil and Gas Corp. (4). The facts are machine-extracted from the signed orders and not individually reviewed.

Operators

124 operators filed rows in the March 2021 report. Most wells reported: Continental Resources, Inc. (1,982), Hess Bakken Investments II, LLC (1,752), Whiting Oil and Gas Corporation (1,748), Oasis Petroleum North America LLC (1,068), XTO Energy Inc (1,037).

The operator of record changed on 29 wells since their previous report.

Future Acquisition Company, LLC to Valkyrie Operating, LLC: 15 wells
XTO Energy Inc to Rimrock Oil & Gas Williston LLC: 13 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 March 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.