August 2021

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

Written on November 8, 2026, looking back. This issue was not published in August 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 output1,108,097barrels a day2.7% above the month before · 5.1% below a year earlier

Wells reporting oil16,427plus 102 confidential wells whose volumes are withheld

Wells spudded53oil and gas wells, by spud date

Orders signed20169 spacing and 12 pooling actions

Crude price$63.79a barrel, first purchase$37.66 a year earlier

Flared share of reported gas8.1%

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

Drilling

53 oil and gas wells have a spud date in August 2021 in the state's wells layer of November 6, 2026. By county: Williams 23, Dunn 11, McKenzie 9, Divide 5, Mountrail 3.

Hearings and orders

20 Industrial Commission orders signed in August 2021 are in the project's order index, with 169 spacing and 12 pooling actions on spacing units. Most frequent applicants: Lime Rock Resources III-A, L.P. (10), Whiting Oil and Gas Corp. (4), Hunt Oil Co. (1). The facts are machine-extracted from the signed orders and not individually reviewed.

Operators

123 operators filed rows in the August 2021 report. Most wells reported: Continental Resources, Inc. (2,035), Whiting Oil and Gas Corporation (1,774), Hess Bakken Investments II, LLC (1,766), Oasis Petroleum North America LLC (1,079), XTO Energy Inc (1,034).

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 August 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.