Bakken oil rises again in shadow of mighty Permian

Bloomberg

The Bakken shale is roaring back to life, and Kevin Black sees the evidence almost every day as he looks out the window of his blue Ford F-150 pickup truck.
The president of Creedence Energy Services, which provides chemicals for oil wells, Black, 29, drives about two hours to Williston, North Dakota, at the heart of the oil-rich formation, most days. After a three-year slump in Bakken shale-oil production, he says the resurgence is unmistakable in the influx of new industrial vehicles on the road.
“There is really no room for hesitation or pessimism in the oil business if you want to be successful,” he said. “If the price is there, and the market is there, operators and
service providers are going to go for it.”
With oil near $65 a barrel, up more than $20 from June, the Bakken, a tight-rock formation under North Dakota, Montana and Canada’s Saskatchewan province, is poised to test its output record. But the second-largest US shale-oil play is growing in the shadow of a newer, bigger and faster-growing competitor — the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico.
First tapped more than a decade ago with the advent of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, the Bakken transformed North Dakota and helped position the US to challenge Saudi Arabia and Russia as production leaders. Then a supply glut triggered the global market downturn, prompting OPEC and allies like Russia to trim output last year. Yet Permian production rose during the bust and is now outpacing the Bakken.
Bakken output is set to exceed the December 2014 record of 1.23 million barrels a day in the first half of 2018, Lynn Helms, director of the North Dakota Mineral Resources Department, said Jan. 16. It sank to 942,000 barrels a day in Dec 2016, before rebounding last year. “We are optimistic,” Helms said. “Everything points to more rigs, more frack crews, more activity in North Dakota.”