Every active oil and gas formation and play in North Dakota — Bakken, Williston Basin, Judith River- Eagle, and more — ranked by well count, with the top operators and primary counties for each.
Refreshed monthly from NDIC well records. Data current as of 2026-08-12.
Quick answer: The most-targeted oil and gas formations in North Dakota are the Bakken, Williston Basin and Judith River- Eagle, led by the Bakken with 35,128 wells on record. Ranked by well count across 3 tracked formations from North Dakota Industrial Commission (NDIC) well-header records (as of 2026-08-12) and refreshed monthly.
As of 2026-08-12, the most-developed North Dakota formation is the Bakken with 35,128 wells on record, across 3 tracked formations, per North Dakota Industrial Commission (NDIC) well records.
Top Operators:
Continental Resources (2,375), Hess Bakken Investments Ii (2,316), Whiting Petroleum CORP (2,312), Oasis Petroleum North America (1,869), Devon Energy Williston,LLC (1,827), Eog Resources (1,225), Xto Energy (1,180), Burlington Resources Oil & Gas Company (1,134), Petrohunt (1,112), Enerplus Resources (1,042)
Primary counties: Mc Kenzie, Williams, Mountrail, Dunn, Bottineau
Top Operators:
Continental Resources (720), Hess Bakken Investments Ii (587), Devon Energy Williston,LLC (517), Oasis Petroleum North America (342), Marathon Oil Company (332), Burlington Resources Oil & Gas Company (313), Enerplus Resources (308), Phoenix Operating Company (269), Whiting Petroleum CORP (236), Xto Energy (214)
Primary counties: Mc Kenzie, Williams, Dunn, Mountrail, Divide
Top Operators:
Continental Resources (480), Denbury Onshore (394), Remuda Energy Development (101), Burlington Resources Oil & Gas Company (68), Ridge Oil & Gas, LLC Dba Ridge Energy (63), Luff Exploration Company (40), Fidelity Exploration & Production Company (25), Bta Oil Producers (24), Shell Oil Company (23), Joseph J C Paine & Associates (18)
Primary counties: Bowman, Slope
Source: North Dakota Industrial Commission (NDIC) well-header records, aggregated by primary play / interpreted formation / basin.
Threshold: Only formations with at least 50 wells are listed (excludes one-off wildcat plays).
Why it matters: Knowing which formation underlies your tract — and which operators are actively drilling that formation — is the foundation of mineral-rights valuation. Stacked-pay plays carry materially different upside than mature single-bench plays.
Refresh cadence: Monthly. Data current as of 2026-08-12.
Cite this dataset
Permanently archived and citable via a DOI on Zenodo (CERN), under a CC BY 4.0 license. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21442884 · View on Zenodo
License & attribution: This data is licensed CC BY 4.0. You are free to share and adapt it, including commercially, provided you credit “Buckhead Energy” and link back to this page or the DOI above.
The most-developed formations and plays in North Dakota are the Bakken, Williston Basin and Judith River- Eagle. This directory tracks 3 active formations ranked by well count, per North Dakota Industrial Commission (NDIC) records.
The Bakken has the most wells on record in North Dakota — 35,128 wells, worked by 1,288 active operators, per NDIC well-header data. This is a well-count ranking, not a reserves or value ranking.
The most active operators in the Bakken are Continental Resources, Hess Bakken Investments Ii, Whiting Petroleum Corp., Oasis Petroleum North America, Devon Energy Williston,LLC. Each formation card below lists its top operators by well count.
About 2,170 drilling permits were filed across the tracked North Dakota formations in the last 24 months, per NDIC records — a rough measure of where new activity is concentrated.
Your deed and county records determine which formations your mineral rights cover; a tract can own multiple stacked formations. Buckhead Energy can check the geology under your tract against current well and permit data and put a free, no-obligation written offer in writing — this directory is informational only, not a valuation.
The geology under your tract drives your valuation. Get a free written offer based on your specific formation and county.
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Sell Your North Dakota Mineral Rights
State: North Dakota
Active formations: 3
Total wells: 43,868
Recent permits: 2,170
Last refresh: 2026-08-12
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