Energy Prospectus

CLR is the top company in the Williston Basin.

The Bakken and Three Forks formations have an estimated mean oil resource of 7.4 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil, with a range of 4.42 billion barrels to 11.43 billion barrels, according to a 2013 assessment by the US Geological Survey.

The Williston Basin will be producing oil for several more decades, but all oilfields ever discovered eventually go on steady decline. The Williston Basin may be getting close to "Peak Production".

https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/mark ... aphy-study

If you own CLR, don't worry. CLR is now generating lots of free cash flow from operations (over $700 million this year and over $1.2 Billion in 2019). In addition to lots of running room in North Dakota, CLR is ramping up production in SCOOP/STACK in Central Oklahoma.

Oasis Petroleum (OAS) is my other "Top Pick" for the Williston Basin.

Interesting article on North Dakota oil production which just hit an all time high.
What jumps out, is how much more efficient the rigs are compared to 6 years ago.
One would think the development cost per barrel continues to fall , at least on the drilling side.

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The North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources’ (‘DMR’) latest data said that oil production in July averaged a record 1,269,366 barrels a day, up 42,046 barrels a day from June. To put this in perspective, oil supplies from the state of North Dakota is now at par with the struggling OPEC producer Venezuela................

Some 66 drilling rigs were active in the state in July, up three from the June average..........................Though the current rig count is still down considerably from the peak of May 2012 when North Dakota had 218 units drilling, one must note that sophisticated drilling rigs have enabled producers to get more oil out of each well. In other words, modern rigs have helped boost the per-unit output.

More at this link:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/north-da ... 01289.html

The top drilling rigs, like HP's "flex rigs" are amazing. They are in high demand.