Continental Resources to Stop Drilling in North Dakota For Now

(Photo by Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)

(North Dakota Monitor) – A leading North Dakota oil producer is pausing new drilling amid low oil prices, but state regulators emphasized  that the company is not exiting the Bakken.

Continental Resources Founder Harold Hamm said in a recent interview it will be the first time in 30 years the company will not operate a drilling rig in the state. But the company, the No. 2 oil producer in North Dakota, will continue to operate existing wells and likely reevaluate the economics of drilling in a few months.

“Continental is not pulling up stakes and leaving the state,” Gov. Kelly Armstrong said during Tuesday’s meeting of the North Dakota Industrial Commission.

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.