• About one-quarter of all the oil and gas rigs operating in the U.S. are located in just two places: the Bakken play in North Dakota and the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas.
• Between the two, four hundred rigs are plugging away into the soil — and it only serves to help production rates when you can't miss.
• The same rules that have always applied to the oil and gas game don't seem to apply in North Dakota, where drillers are striking oil with nearly every well.
• Their drilling success rates are as high as 99%— and even conservative estimates report nine out of every ten Bakken wells are profitable.

“They're all spoiled... Things never used to be this good...”

This particular rant was aimed at the younger guys flocking to work the rigs that have sprouted up in North Dakota over the last few years.

“There was a time when drilling a well actually carried some risk to it,” he went on, waiting to top off.


“Nowadays, they have all sorts of gadgets and tests to make sure they're on target. I don't think any of those new roughnecks have even seen a dry hole before.”