Bakken
Formation

The Bakken Formation is the unconventional play that put North Dakota on the modern oil map. It is a Late Devonian to Early Mississippian organic-rich shale deposited in the Williston Basin, with horizontal development concentrated in western North Dakota and extending into eastern Montana. The Bakken produces light, sweet crude that commands premium prices and supports a sustained drilling program even through commodity downturns.

Therocks beneath your minerals.

The Bakken consists of three members: the Upper Bakken Shale, the Middle Bakken (a dolomitic siltstone and limestone), and the Lower Bakken Shale. The Upper and Lower shales are the source rocks. The Middle Bakken is the primary horizontal reservoir target.

The Middle Bakken’s productivity comes from its position between the two organic-rich shales, which have charged the formation with hydrocarbons over geologic time. The reservoir itself has very low matrix permeability, making it a textbook unconventional target: production depends entirely on the fracture network created by hydraulic fracturing of horizontal wellbores.

Middle Bakken thickness varies across the basin, typically 30 to 50 feet in the productive core. This is thinner than many comparable plays, which has driven precise targeting and high-stage completions. The Three Forks Formation, immediately below the Lower Bakken Shale, is a separate horizontal target that is often drilled in the same drilling units as Bakken wells. Together, the Bakken and Three Forks produce most of North Dakota’s oil.

Where theproduction lives.

Bakken horizontal drilling is mature. Continental Resources, Chord Energy (which absorbed Whiting and Oasis), Chevron (which acquired Hess in 2025), ConocoPhillips (which acquired Marathon Oil in 2024), Devon Energy (through the Grayson Mill acquisition), and ExxonMobil (through XTO) are among the largest operators. Drilling activity has settled into a steady pattern after the boom-and-bust cycles of the 2010s, with operators focused on capital discipline and per-well economics rather than production growth at all costs.

Modern Bakken wells are typically two miles long, with completion designs that have evolved through generations of optimization. Modern Bakken wells deliver strong initial production rates and substantial year-one cumulative production, with variability across the basin: wells in the McKenzie County core tend to produce above the basin average, while wells on the basin’s edges produce below it. Decline through year two is sharp, settling into a long, lower-rate tail that can continue for decades.

Mineral rights in theBakken.

The Bakken drives most royalty checks in the Williston Basin. Mineral owners in McKenzie, Williams, Mountrail, and Dunn counties in North Dakota, and Richland County in Montana, overwhelmingly receive their income from Bakken horizontal wells. Operator consolidation has been heavy in recent years, so many royalty owners have seen the name on their statements change as a result of acquisitions, even though the underlying mineral interest is unchanged.

For inheritors with Williston Basin interests, the Bakken is typically the primary asset, paired with the Three Forks below. Combined Bakken and Three Forks development can produce multiple wells per drilling spacing unit over the life of development, generating staged royalty income across years.

The Bakken’s history of operator turnover means royalty paperwork often shows a chain of legacy names. Whiting, Oasis, Hess, Marathon, and Grayson Mill all appear on statements that are now administered by Chord, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Devon respectively. The underlying interest carries over unchanged. We are happy to help you trace the current operator if the multi-name history makes the chain hard to follow.