Williston News Pulse June 2022

Posted: July 19, 2022

The Williston Basin | June 2022

Field Overview

The Williston Basin is a large sedimentary basin along the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains in western North Dakota, eastern Montana, and southern Saskatchewan, Can. The basin is characterized by thick sequences of sediments that underlie an area of about 110,000 square miles, and it is geologically closely related to the Alberta Basin in Canada. The first wells in the Williston were drilled in the 1936, and by 1954, 80% of possible producing acreage had been leased.

State Drilling Statistics

Active Drilling Rigs in Basin – 38 (-)
Total Rigs in North Dakota – 36 (+1)
Total Rigs in United States- 756 (+16)
Total U.S. Rigs 56% YTD

Williston Top Producer

Top Producer By BOE – Marathon Oil

Basin Highlights

Landfill Becomes First in State to Accept Radioactive Waste

Regulators in North Dakota have approved a landfill’s request to become the first landfill to accept radioactive waste. Secure Energy Services already accepts other oilfield waste and will be allowed to accept radioactive waste once it obtains a $1.125 million bond. The Department of Environmental Quality plans to allow the disposal of 25,000 tons of waste should everything go according to plan. While nowhere near the 100,000 tons of radioactive oilfield waste generated every year, it allows some operators to save money by disposing of materials in state rather than trucking it out to other states. The North Dakota Energy Industry Waste Coalition believes that this is inappropriate. A member of the group said, “There are no safe radioactive facilities. All we are doing now is saving oil companies money by not having to ship it out of state. If they are dumb enough in Montana to take it, we should keep sending it there.”

New Production Data Highlights Storm Damage

2 back-to-back blizzards shut down lots of North Dakota’s energy infrastructure as some operators lost 45 to 100% of their production to storm damage. This correlates to srome 900,000 barrels per day in April. The monthly data has now been aggregated revealing a 20% month-over-month production drop. This is the second largest drop only bested by the 30% decline from April to May in 2020 as markets responded to COVID. Even natural gas output slumped some 19%. By the 1st of June, things were back to normal.

North Dakota’s First Soybean Processing Unit Soon to be Functional

The first dedicated soybean processing facility in North Dakota, which will allow the annual production of around 75 million gallons of sustainable diesel, has been officially opened by US-based Marathon Petroleum. The joint venture between ADM and Marathon Petroleum will manufacture around 600 million pounds of vegetable oil annually, with production set to begin at the Green Bison manufacturing facility in Spiritwood in 2023. “The Green Bison soy processing facility represents another step in Marathon Petroleum’s commitment to investing in a sustainable, energy-diverse future,” said Dave Heppner, Marathon Petroleum senior vice president of strategy and business development.