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BAKKEN GETTING OVER A HANGOVER: Those back to back blizzards in April gave the Bakken a hangover, North Dakota Director of Mineral Resources Lynn Helms said during his monthly oil production report. The main part of the problem, of course, were the power outages, which put the lights out for two of the state's largest natural gas processors. Production losses ranged from 45 to 100 percent for producers, dropping oil production 20 percent for April to 900,597 barrels per day and gas production 19 percent to 2.445 billion cubic feet per day. County by county, McKenzie County lost the most per day, 67,000 barrels, followed by Dunn County which lost 57,000 barrels per day. Williams County lost 53,000 barrels per day and Mountrail lost 36,000 barrels per day. Divide County, meanwhile, lost the least, despite being hardest hit by the storm. They lost just 4,000 barrels per day. There are around 16 hydraulic fracturing crews working in the Bakken presently. Active drilling rigs are around 39, down from 44 week before last on Friday. The region's two largest rig suppliers have 14 rigs located in North Dakota to deploy — but it's taking them two months to secure a crew to train to operate them. At that rate, it will take a little more than two years to deploy all of those rigs. Helms does not expect the state to break 50 rigs this year as a result.
HAMM RAISES A FEW EYEBROWS: Oil tycoon Harold Hamm made headlines this week with a go-private proposal for Continental Resources. Hamm would pay $70 for outstanding shares, a 9 percent premium over and above Continental's June 13 closing price. Hamm already owns 299.7 million shares of the company's common stock. His all-cash offer equates to a valuation of $25.41 billion for Continental Resources. Is this a trend? Can we expect more public companies to go private in this era of ESG metrics tagged onto Wall Street Capital? I've posed this question to analysts, and we'll have more on their answer to that question in an upcoming edition.
IS IT AN OFFER OASIS SHAREHOLDERS WON'T REFUSE: Oasis Petroleum has declared a special dividend of $15 per share for Oasis common stock in connection with its merger of equals with Whiting Petroleum. The combined company will hold 972,000 net acres, making it the Bakken's largest asset holder, and produce 170,000 barrels of oil per day, making it the No. 2 producer just behind Continental. I've been told that a new name for the company has been chosen, and that there will be a big reveal in July. Stay tuned!
BRIDGER GOOD TO GO, AND MORE THINGS TO KNOW: Bridger pipeline got a  thumbs up from the North Dakota Public Service commission for its 105,000 barrel per day Bakken pipeline project to Baker, Montana. The company had to answer a lot of questions about its new leak monitoring and protocols, primarily as a result of its 2015 spill near Glendive, Montana, and sister company Belle Fourche's 2016 leak into the Ash Creek tributary of the Little Missouri. Team Registration is now open for the Williston Basin API golf tournament, and a proposed EOR project in Williams County mirrors successful test pilots in Oklahoma.
WAIT THAT'S NOT ALL : Keep scrolling down for an excellent editorial from Basin Safety Consulting's Jon Greiner. This week's rundown of energy matters is 100 percent free, including all linked articles thanks to Basin Safety Consulting. You can help keep oil and gas news free in the Bakken by recruiting a friend to sign up for this free newsletter today!
 As always, reach out if you've got more story ideas for me or you have feedback for me on this newsletter. I can be reached at rjean@willistonherald.com. I love hearing from you!
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The Safety Stinks (not really) seriesSolving the Data Debacle - The Eternal Slope
by Jonathon Greiner • Basin Safety Consulting
Our team took to the mountains for some much needed fresh air, reflection and strategic planning. What I thought would be a time of sharing internal struggles (i.e. how to better serve customers or the changing market or supply chain) turned into something very different. The main topic of discussion? Our documentation system. I’ve spent years building it, incorporating mountains of information and safety data, and spent weeks on implementation. I was proud of our advances and capabilities, but unbeknownst to me my team had been struggling with our redundant and complicated system for some time. I was blindsided. If it was good enough for our customers, why wasn’t it good enough for us? After I dusted myself (and my pride) off, I could evaluate our system more objectively. If I was being honest, my employees were right. We could do better. Just because our system had been functional for many years didn’t mean it could not be further improved.
Read the rest of this excellent editorial online here.
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