December 2023

North Dakota's oil month in December 2023, from the public record.

Written on November 8, 2026, looking back. This issue was not published in December 2023. 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 output1,277,774barrels a day0.4% below the month before · 33.2% above a year earlier

Wells reporting oil18,207plus 114 confidential wells whose volumes are withheld

Wells spudded54oil and gas wells, by spud date

Orders signed33107 spacing and 18 pooling actions

Crude price$65.68a barrel, first purchase$72.98 a year earlier

Flared share of reported gas5.0%

Oil output, January 2003 to August 2026; the dot marks December 2023.

Drilling

54 oil and gas wells have a spud date in December 2023 in the state's wells layer of November 6, 2026. By county: Mountrail 24, Williams 14, Dunn 7, McKenzie 6, Billings 2.

Hearings and orders

33 Industrial Commission orders signed in December 2023 are in the project's order index, with 107 spacing and 18 pooling actions on spacing units. Most frequent applicants: Continental Resources, Inc. (11), Oasis Petroleum North America LLC (7), Petro- Hunt, L.L.C. (6). The facts are machine-extracted from the signed orders and not individually reviewed.

Operators

107 operators filed rows in the December 2023 report. Most wells reported: Continental Resources, Inc. (2,476), Whiting Oil and Gas Corporation (1,960), Hess Bakken Investments II, LLC (1,772), Oasis Petroleum North America LLC (1,571), Grayson Mill Operating, LLC (1,233).

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 December 2023, 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.