North Dakota Drilling Permits
The Bakken and Three Forks formations in the Williston Basin kicked off the US shale revolution. Tight oil requires horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing.
All Time
As of September 16, 2026
Recent Activity
As of September 16, 2026
Year over Year
Top Operators in North Dakota
| Rank | Operator | Permits (30d) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Phoenix Operating LLC | 8 | 33.3% |
| 2 | FORMENTERA OPERATIONS, LLC | 4 | 16.7% |
| 3 | HESS BAKKEN INVESTMENTS II, LLC | 4 | 16.7% |
| 4 | BURLINGTON RESOURCES OIL & GAS COMPANY LP | 2 | 8.3% |
| 5 | KRAKEN OPERATING, LLC | 2 | 8.3% |
| 6 | SLAWSON EXPLORATION COMPANY, INC. | 2 | 8.3% |
| 7 | ROCKPORT ENERGY SOLUTIONS LLC | 1 | 4.2% |
| 8 | KODA RESOURCES OPERATING, LLC | 1 | 4.2% |
Find Wells Near You in North Dakota
Search for oil wells, gas wells, and drilling permits near any North Dakota address. Enter a city, ZIP code, or street address to find recent well permit activity in your area.
We use your location only to run this search. Analytics never receives your address, ZIP code, or coordinates.
Major Basins in North Dakota
Williston Basin
Rig-count data for this basin is currently unavailable.
Bakken Formation
Rig-count data for this basin is currently unavailable.
Data Source
Data Coverage
1904-12-23 to 2026-09-16
Source Check Schedule
Configured daily (business days)
Last successful check: September 20, 2026. This is separate from the permit-record date.
Access This Data via API
Access North Dakota well permit data programmatically. Historical data, trends, and more.
/v1/drilling-intelligence/well-permits?state=NDcurl -X GET "https://api.oilpriceapi.com/v1/drilling-intelligence/well-permits?state=ND"
Sample Response
{
"data": {
"state": "North Dakota",
"state_code": "ND",
"total_permits": 41951,
"last_30_days": 24,
"last_365_days": 690,
"year_over_year_change": "-25.2%",
"top_operators": [
{
"name": "Phoenix Operating LLC",
"permits": 8,
"pct_share": "33.3%"
},
{
"name": "FORMENTERA OPERATIONS, LLC",
"permits": 4,
"pct_share": "16.7%"
},
{
"name": "HESS BAKKEN INVESTMENTS II, LLC",
"permits": 4,
"pct_share": "16.7%"
}
]
},
"meta": {
"source": "North Dakota Industrial Commission (NDIC)",
"data_as_of": "2026-09-16",
"source_checked_at": "2026-09-20T00:48:25Z",
"configured_check_cadence": "daily"
}
}North Dakota Drilling Permit FAQs
North Dakota has 41,951 historical drilling permits in the returned dataset, with 24 records in its latest 30-day calculation. The latest returned permit date is September 16, 2026. The configured daily source-check schedule is not a guarantee that the dataset is current to the regulator.
North Dakota includes the Williston Basin, Bakken Formation basins. The Bakken and Three Forks formations in the Williston Basin kicked off the US shale revolution. Tight oil requires horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing.
The top operators in North Dakota by permit count are: Phoenix Operating LLC (33.3%), FORMENTERA OPERATIONS, LLC (16.7%), HESS BAKKEN INVESTMENTS II, LLC (16.7%).
Official permit data comes from the North Dakota Industrial Commission (NDIC) (https://www.dmr.nd.gov/oilgas/). OilPriceAPI aggregates this data and provides it via API with historical trends and operator analytics.
Weekly Drilling Report
See how North Dakota compares to other states in our weekly permit analysis with interactive map and operator rankings.
This Week in Well Permits →