Continental Resources will resume oil drilling in North Dakota this year, according to a report from the North Dakota Monitor. The Oklahoma City-based independent, controlled by founder and chairman Harold Hamm, did not disclose rig count, well targets or capital allocation in the announcement.

The move reverses a multi-quarter stretch of reduced activity in the Williston Basin for one of the original Bakken operators. Continental had throttled its drilling program to near zero in recent quarters as it prioritized balance-sheet repair and capital returns following its late-2022 take-private transaction.

Why Continental matters in the Bakken

Continental sits among the top three operators in the Williston Basin alongside ExxonMobil/XTO and Hess Corporation, the latter now part of Chevron following the 2023 close of that transaction. The company helped pioneer commercial production from the Middle Bakken through horizontal drilling and multi-stage completion in the late 2000s and built a multi-county acreage position across North Dakota and Montana.

North Dakota's Department of Mineral Resources reports state oil production near 1.1 million barrels per day, with McKenzie, Mountrail, Dunn and Williams counties contributing the bulk of the volume. The Bakken is the second-most-productive U.S. shale basin behind the Permian.

What changes for service contractors

Even a modest Continental restart ripples through the Williston Basin service network. Pressure pumpers, drilling rig contractors and tubular goods suppliers have operated on thin demand as basin-wide activity consolidated among the largest operators. A single Continental pad program tightens the available pool of crews and equipment.

Major service providers active in the basin include Halliburton, Liberty Energy, ProPetro and Schlumberger, with smaller regional operators handling ancillary work. Continental programs have historically run on high-intensity simul-frac designs to minimize parent-child interference across multi-well pads.

What operational questions remain open?

The North Dakota Monitor report did not address several points basin counterparties will want answered:

• Number of rigs Continental intends to deploy
• Whether activity targets the Middle Bakken, Three Forks or both
• Split between drilling capital and completions capital
• Permit status with the North Dakota Industrial Commission
• Use of simul-frac versus zipper-frac completion designs

Continental has not filed public financial statements since the take-private deal closed, removing a primary window into capex plans and forward production.

Watch items for the rig list

• Daily rig count: the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources publishes a daily rig list. Any Continental rig entry confirms the restart.
• Service earnings: Liberty Energy, ProPetro and Halliburton often preview basin activity in their quarterly calls.
• Crude pricing: WTI at current strip levels keeps top-quartile Bakken breakevens comfortably below the curve.
• Permitting: Continental's next batch of Industrial Commission applications will signal project location and density.
• Midstream: gathering and crude-takeaway systems in McKenzie and Mountrail counties could see incremental demand.

The resumption, even at modest scale, tells Williston Basin counterparties that conditions have shifted enough for one of the play's founding operators to bring capital back to the field. The first confirmation will be a Continental rig number on the state list.