Among featured speakers of The Williston Basin Petroleum Conference will be Harold Hamm, Executive Chairman, Continental Resources, the largest producer of the Bakken. The event will be held May 11-13 at the Bismarck Event Center, in Bismarck, North Dakota.

The Williston Basin Petroleum Conference is the largest conference and trade show in the nation focused on the Bakken, Three Forks and Williston Basin. It brings together leading experts on breakthrough technologies, energy markets, potential untapped formations, the regulatory environment, and more.

Over the last 28 years, the WBPC has become a “who’s who” of industry experts and leadership in the Bakken, providing some of the best networking opportunities with key decision-makers in an intimate and exciting setting.

Other featured speakers are Bill Berry, CEO of Continental, and Shelly Lambertz – Chief Culture Officer at Continental.

For more information go to www.wbpcnd. com/ events/ Williston-basin- petroleum- conerence.com

ONEOK, Inc. a major Bakken oil company, announced fourth quarter results:Fourth Quarter 2020 Results, Compared With Fourth Quarter 2019:

* 11% increase in operating income to $538.7 million.

* 12% increase in adjusted EBITDA to $742.0 million.

* 24% increase in Rocky Mountain region NGL raw feed throughput volumes.

* 11% increase in Rocky Mountain region natural gas volumes processed.

* $1.04 per MMBtu average fee rate in the natural gas gathering and processing segment.

Full-year 2020 Results, Compared With Full Year 2019:

* Net income of $612.8 million, including $644.9 million of noncash impairment charges.

* 6% increase in adjusted EBITDA to $2,723.7 million.

* 18% increase in Rocky Mountain region NGL raw feed throughput volumes.

* 10% decrease in operating costs.

North Dakota’s Bakken Shale gas output increased by 20% in 2019, and the latest analysis shows it growing another 10% year over year in 2020. Due to limited downstream access, the additional production looks to take a greater share on Northern Border Pipeline.

Bakken gas production is expected to grow by 10% in 2020, before slowing down to about 4% annually from 2021 through 2025, according to a forecast by S&P Global Platts Analytics.

Last year, Bakken producers relied on well completions, or bringing drilled but uncompleted wells online, to keep production growing. However, one of the lingering constraints within the basin is insufficient processing capacity and natural gas takeaway, which has caused producers to consistently miss gas capture targets established by the North Dakota Industrial Commission.

To combat the issue there has been a push for additional infrastructure and as a result: four gas processing plants came online during the second half of 2019 and another five are in the planning stages with in-service dates spread out over the next two years.

With Bakken gas production growing faster than processing plants can come online, the region has come up short in meeting the state’s regulatory policy for gas flaring, which not only are set to tighten in 2020, but also are expected to be enforced more aggressively due to public pressure.

Recent enforcement of the regulations has not been strict, especially since the NDIC designated various extenuating circumstances and producer exemptions. The NDIC currently estimates more than 500 MMcf/d of gas is being flared at oil wells within the state with natural gas capture rates hovering around 83% in November 2019. This is a problem because the commission’s current gas capture target is 88% and increases to 91% in November 2020.

There is also a shortage of gas pipeline takeaway within the region. The main outlet for Bakken gas is Northern Border, where Western Canadian import volumes compete for space. Bakken gas has been increasing its market share of Northern Border’s capacity for the past several years. As of late, the percentage of Bakken gas on Northern Border’s roughly 2.5 Bcf/d capacity has approached 80%, according to Platts Analytics.

This means about.500 MMcf/d of Northern Border capacity currently being occupied by Canadian volumes that Bakken gas could potentially push out. In order to meet the current 12% flaring limit, operators in the Bakken need to capture an additional 200 MMcf/d, which is within the bounds of potentially available capacity on Northern Border.

However, about a quarter of the gas produced in the Bakken originates in the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, where it is more difficult to obtain permits for building infrastructure such as gathering and takeaway pipelines. Per the latest state data, capture rates in the FBIR stand at 81%. While this marks a notable improvement since January 2019 when the FBIR capture rate registered at 73%, it remains unclear how much extra gas operators in FBIR can capture next year.

With no new announcements for imminent gas takeaway pipelines serving the Williston Basin, operators in the basin will need to maximize their footprint on Northern Border to meet the required capture rates.

The core area of North Dakota’s Bakken was rocking in October as the state set new records for oil and natural gas production. According to Lynn Helms, North Dakota Mineral Resources director. “For the first time ever, the state had over 1.5 million barrels per day of oil production” – a five percent increase over the previous month. During October four counties in North Dakota produced 44,826,235 of the state’s total production o 47,051,671 and 91,817, 410 mcf of the state’s total natural gas production, 95,189,103 mcf.

From the Oil Patch Hotline

Harold Hamm, CEO of Continental Resources, the largest Williston Basin producer, said OPEC and U.S. shale producers should cut crude oil production and shipments into an oversupplied market.

U.S. shale producers “need to row our own boat… We need to make sure we don’t oversupply the market,” Hamm told a Denver conference recently. “Capital discipline is more important now than at any time I’ve seen.”

Producers need to cut back on the number of active drilling rigs, noting that reductions so far “haven’t bottomed yet,” Hamm said. He believes that the current rig count of 909 will drop to 800.

“You did that.”

“We need to talk about it more,” said Blu Hulsey, Senior Vice President of Government Relations and Regulatory Affairs at Continental Resources. The accomplishments and technological development of the petroleum industry goes far too much unremarked upon, Hulsey told the audience at the Montana Petroleum Association’s Appreciation Luncheon at the DoubleTree in Billings, on August 28.

The technology that has been developed within the industry “is equal to the technology of putting people on the moon,” he said,

Continental Resources is one of the largest oil producers in the Bakken.

“We are the greatest oil country in the world,” Hulsey unequivocally stated at one point.

The accomplishments of the industry “has changed the world,” said Hulsey, pointing to the recent antics of Iran capturing oil tankers and threatening other countries militarily “…and the price of gas in Billings doesn’t go up a penny,” he exclaimed. In the past, with the US dependent upon the Middle East for oil, any kind of incident like those recently witnessed, would have caused oil prices to sky rocket, but not anymore.

“You did that,” he told the room packed with representatives of all aspects of the petroleum industry. The US petroleum industry is now the world’s largest producer of oil and an exporter of oil and gas to the rest of the world.

As the cost of production continues to decline because of the new technology, and the level of production continues to increase there will continue to be a lot of changes to the world and to the industry itself.

The industry is changing how it looks at itself. “Everyone is looking internally,” he said about petroleum businesses.

You don’t need 150 rigs in the Bakken, 60 will produce just as much, now.

Returns that were projected on $70 per barrel oil prices are now being experienced with $50 per barrel oil prices. 

“We have almost doubled production in four years because of technology,” said Hulsey.

At one point it was impressive that there were 12 wells in the Bakken that hit 100,000 barrels of production in the first 90 days. Now there are 157 wells that hit that level of production in 90 days, and more and more continue to hit that goal.

“You are going to see long-term growth in the Bakken,” predicted Hulsey, “and we are going to continue to get more recovery.”

Investors are not being apprised of this reality as much as they should be, Hulsey lamented.

Hulsey praised the people in the industry. When the industry encounters barriers, “our people get better – American ingenuity is making a difference.”

Hulsey talked about the Bakken as a world class resource, saying that 150 miles wide and 150 miles long, it is comparable to the Permian Basin, which while impressive and larger doesn’t have the same quality of oil. There is more water in the Permian oil. Having considerably less water reduces production costs in the Bakken. Efficiencies being achieved in the Bakken are not necessarily found in every oil field – many won’t be found in the Permian.

The Bakken will eventually produce 30 to 40 billion barrels of oil.

Hulsey lauded the Trump administration. “We have an administration that is not stopping us from doing long-term development…that means big improvements for the long term.”

The price of oil is a double edged sword for Montana. When the price is high the industry does well and so does Montana in terms of jobs and state tax revenue, but when it drops while the industry struggles, consumers benefit with a lower cost of living and lower cost of doing business.

But regardless, it is  projected that the petroleum prices will continue to lower.

As of Aug. 7, oil prices plunged to their lowest level since June 13 – down five percent at times during the trading session. West Texas Intermediate Crude was trading at $51.17 per barrel – down more than 4.5 percent, while Brent Crude was trading around $56.35 per barrel.

The price for Bakken oil tends to be lower because of the cost of getting it to market. A year ago oil prices fluctuated in the range of $70 to $80.

“Demand for gasoline] is likely to suffer not only because [of] the trade rift, but as summer closes, demand will drop,” Patrick DeHaan, a senior petroleum analyst at GasBuddy.com,

While inventories might have a short-term impact, an ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China could weigh on prices.

Tensions ramped up over the past week as President Trump communicated his intent to impose 10 percent tariffs on the remaining $300 billion worth of goods coming into the U.S. from China. In response, China allowed the value of the yuan to drop to a more than 10-year low against the U.S. dollar – after which the U.S. labeled China a “currency manipulator.”

That means lower gas prices are likely on their way for drivers.

Prices may be under $2 per gallon again by Thanksgiving time, especially in mid states and southern states.As a point of interest: because of the supply vs demand issue, companies are ratcheting down production. Rig count in the US is 942 as of Aug. 2, 2019, which is  less than July 26, and 102 fewer rigs over a year ago.