While his Continental Resources company is expanding drilling efforts in Argentina, Oklahoma oilman Harold Hamm confirms a pause in drilling in North Dakota where the company created its reputation. Low oil prices are to blame.
Continental has three drilling rigs located in North Dakota, heart of the Williston Basin but it has idled one rig and is reported to be in the process of shutting down drilling operations by March. It will be the first time in 30 years that Continental Resources won’t have drilling operations underway in the state, according to a report by the North Dakota Monitor.
Hamm confirmed in a recent interview the company plans to continue operation of existing wells and leaders will reevaluate the economics of drilling in a few months. Hamm told Bloomberg News that oil and gas companies are reassessing their drilling activity in all oil fields, not just North Dakota’s Bakken, due to thin profit margins.
“There’s no need to drill it when margins are basically gone,” Hamm said in the article.
Continental Resources had been operating three drilling rigs in North Dakota, but one has ceased operations, said Nathan Anderson, director of the Department of Mineral Resources. The two other rigs are expected to go offline by early March, Anderson said.