Still Rockin’ Out In The Bakken

Earlier today, I had a chance to view the rig count out in North Dakota and it seems to have leveled off significantly in the past couple of weeks, hovering in the neighborhood of 205 active drilling rigs. There are several good reasons behind this. One is that older rigs are being replaced with more efficient ones which IS accelerating the amount of wells being drilled but holding the rig count flat. Basically, what that meas is older rigs, which turned wells in 45 days, are now being replaced with more efficient rigs which can drill a well in less than 30 days. Another reason for this recent rig count is that there is a large delay in fracturing services. The number of wells waiting to be fractured out there in Lawrence Welk's home state is around the 250 mark. This number, while still high, is much lower than 650+plus wells waiting to be fracked during the Winter/Spring of 2011. I read earlier today that once the infrastructure problem is reined in and crude and service prices stabilize, get ready for full scale "Rockin' The Bakken development. And soon we'll be "Rockin' the Rockies" (mountain front)...I was trying to get it to rhyme.