August 2024

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

Written on November 8, 2026, looking back. This issue was not published in August 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 output1,180,806barrels a day0.7% above the month before · 3.2% below a year earlier

Wells reporting oil18,496plus 134 confidential wells whose volumes are withheld

Wells spudded80oil and gas wells, by spud date

Orders signed41195 spacing and 9 pooling actions

Crude price$70.62a barrel, first purchase$76.87 a year earlier

Flared share of reported gas4.6%

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

Drilling

80 oil and gas wells have a spud date in August 2024 in the state's wells layer of November 6, 2026. By county: McKenzie 24, Dunn 23, Williams 16, Divide 10, Mountrail 4.

Hearings and orders

41 Industrial Commission orders signed in August 2024 are in the project's order index, with 195 spacing and 9 pooling actions on spacing units. Most frequent applicants: Hess Bakken Investments II, LLC (10), Hunt Oil Co. (5), Burlington Resources Oil & Gas Co. LP (4). The facts are machine-extracted from the signed orders and not individually reviewed.

Operators

103 operators filed rows in the August 2024 report. Most wells reported: Continental Resources, Inc. (2,597), Whiting Oil and Gas Corporation (1,964), Hess Bakken Investments II, LLC (1,850), Oasis Petroleum North America LLC (1,692), Grayson Mill Operating, LLC (1,278).

The operator of record changed on 63 wells since their previous report.

XTO Energy Inc to Continental Resources, Inc.: 46 wells
Whiting Oil and Gas Corporation to Empire North Dakota LLC: 10 wells
Samson Oil and Gas USA, Inc to Stearns Oil Company 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 August 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.