January 2024

North Dakota's oil month in January 2024, from the public record.

Written on November 8, 2026, looking back. This issue was not published in January 2024. 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 output1,105,194barrels a day13.5% below the month before · 4.0% above a year earlier

Wells reporting oil18,177plus 81 confidential wells whose volumes are withheld

Wells spudded107oil and gas wells, by spud date

Orders signed82159 spacing and 33 pooling actions

Crude price$67.04a barrel, first purchase$73.71 a year earlier

Flared share of reported gas6.6%

Oil output, January 2003 to August 2026; the dot marks January 2024.

What stood out

Oil output fell 14% from the month before.

Drilling

107 oil and gas wells have a spud date in January 2024 in the state's wells layer of November 6, 2026. By county: Mountrail 43, McKenzie 27, Dunn 20, Divide 7, Billings 5.

Hearings and orders

82 Industrial Commission orders signed in January 2024 are in the project's order index, with 159 spacing and 33 pooling actions on spacing units. Most frequent applicants: Hess Bakken Investments II, LLC (22), Continental Resources, Inc. (16), Hunt Oil Co. (6). The facts are machine-extracted from the signed orders and not individually reviewed.

Operators

106 operators filed rows in the January 2024 report. Most wells reported: Continental Resources, Inc. (2,485), Whiting Oil and Gas Corporation (1,960), Hess Bakken Investments II, LLC (1,771), Oasis Petroleum North America LLC (1,579), Grayson Mill Operating, LLC (1,233).

The operator of record changed on 27 wells since their previous report.

31 Operating, LLC to Cobra Oil & Gas Corporation: 11 wells
Sogc, LLC to Hunt Oil Company: 5 wells
XCL Resources, LLC to Phoenix Operating LLC: 5 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 2024, 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.