Continental Resources to Resume Bakken Drilling by Year-End

Continental Resources Inc. will resume drilling new oil wells in North Dakota before the end of the year, founder Harold Hamm announced Thursday. The move reverses a temporary drilling pause the company initiated in January due to low oil prices, according to the North Dakota Monitor.

Hamm made the announcement at the 2026 Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in Bismarck. He stated that "a great deal has changed" since the pause began, specifically pointing to higher oil prices amid the war with Iran. “We’ll be back to work,” Hamm told attendees. “But we’re not giving it away now.”

The company, North Dakota's No. 2 oil producer, had not had a rig operating in the state since January, marking the first such pause in 30 years. At that time, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil prices were around $60 per barrel. On the day of Hamm's announcement, prices were around $100 per barrel.

While Hamm did not provide a firm number of rigs, he said the planned count would be "meaningful." He also expressed a belief that prices would not collapse to pre-conflict levels even if the Strait of Hormuz reopens. “I don’t believe that, at all,” Hamm said. “I think that we’ll get back to realistic values of oil and natural gas.”

He identified a WTI price in the high $70s or low $80s per barrel as a "healthy range" for the industry. “If you get much lower than that, people curtail their activity,” Hamm said. State officials have said the breakeven price for Bakken operators ranges from $50 to $65 per barrel, depending on location.

North Dakota's top oil regulator welcomed the news. “The conflict could end tomorrow, but what it tells me is it signals that there’s some certainty around a little higher price for a little bit longer,” said Department of Mineral Resources Director Nathan Anderson. He added that he has heard from another, unnamed company also planning to add a rig.

The announcement is seen as a significant signal for the Bakken formation, where Continental is credited with advancing the horizontal drilling techniques that spurred the region's oil boom. The state, which relies heavily on oil tax revenue, had been averaging around 25 active rigs. North Dakota produced an average of 1.1 million barrels of oil per day in February, maintaining its status as the nation's No. 3 oil-producing state.