Continental Resources Ranks As Biggest Bakken Oil Producer

Source: Petro Global News

Continental Resources has taken the top spot as the biggest oil producer in the Bakken shale play.

According to data compiled by Motley Fool, Oklahoma-based Continental Resources is currently the largest player in the Bakken with nearly 140,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in production and just over 1 million net acres.

Continental Resources said earlier this month that a decline in its Bakken production pulled its second quarter net production down 3 percent year-over-year.

Continental’s Bakken production averaged 125,028 barrels of oil equivalent per day in second quarter 2016, down 10 percent from the first quarter 2016.

Oklahoma-based Continental produced 114,554 barrels per day in the North Dakota region of the Bakken and 10,474 barrels per day in the Montana Bakken during the second quarter.

The company added that it continues to increase its drilled but uncompleted well inventory in the Bakken.

Continental’s current Bakken DUC inventory has grown to about 165 gross operated DUCs.

The company expects to end 2016 with about 190 gross operated DUCs in the Bakken.

Whiting Petroleum took the second spot with about 446,000 acres and nearly 125,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the Bakken.

Hess took the third spot while ExxonMobil won the fourth spot with about 77,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in production.

EOG Resources rounded out the top five with its 231,000 net acre position in the play.

Details about EOG Resource’s production figures in the Bakken were not available.

Oil production in the Bakken declined by 32,000 barrels per day in July to just under 1 million barrels per day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Although the Bakken rig count has fallen significantly from a high of just over 200 in 2012, new well oil production per rig has steadily increased at the play.

New oil well production in the Bakken has climbed from under 200 barrels per day in 2007 to over 800 barrels per day this year, according to the EIA.

The Bakken/Three Forks play in the Williston Basin was the largest tight oil play in the United States in 2014 with an estimated 5.97 billion barrels of proved reserves.