North Dakota
Halt in drilling by one of North Dakota’s largest oil producers expected to bring layoffs
BISMARCK — A stop to oil drilling in North Dakota by one of the largest producers in the state will likely lead to layoffs but is “nothing new” to the industry, experts said.
Harold Hamm, founder of Continental Resources, said his company plans to
stop drilling in North Dakota’s Bakken formation for the first time in 30 years
because of low crude oil prices, according to a Monday, Jan. 19, report.
At a North Dakota Industrial Commission meeting the next day, Gov. Kelly Armstrong said people should understand that Continental is not pulling up stakes in North Dakota.
“To be clear, this isn’t the first time an oil company has laid down rigs on infield drilling locations when they’re at a break-even point. … This happens a lot,” Armstrong said.
Nathan Anderson, director of the state Department of Mineral Resources, said Continental plans to halt its three drilling rigs by the end of February.
“They would evaluate whether they pick up rigs after that, based on where oil production is and where the economics are,” Anderson said at the meeting.
The financial break-even point for oil is anywhere from $50 to $65 a barrel, he said.
WTI crude oil futures extended losses to $59 a barrel on Thursday, Jan. 22, amid mounting evidence of an oversupplied market, an industry publication reported.
Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council, said operations will continue on the 20,000 producing wells in the state, and this development related to drilling new wells is “nothing new.”
“We’ve had a good run in North Dakota in the Bakken, and it’s going to go through commodity downturns like this. That’s where we’re at today, and it looks like we’re going to be here for a while, possibly,” he told The Forum.
North Dakota is a major player in the U.S. oil industry, ranking third only to Texas and New Mexico, according to industry statistics.
The state relies heavily on tax revenues from the sale of oil and gas to fund vital infrastructure and other projects, so downturns in the market could impact state budgets.
When oil prices and activity levels drop, North Dakota needs to budget accordingly, which was done during the last legislative session,
Anderson said in a previous interview.
Forum file photo
Continental has a big footprint in North Dakota, second only to Chord Energy, headquartered in Houston, the largest operator in the Bakken, Ness said.
Chord has not publicly indicated its plans, he said, while other large companies such as ConocoPhillips, Exxon and Devon Energy might be able to reduce but not halt drilling activity.
Public companies will likely make such announcements at quarterly investor meetings in early to mid-February, he said.
North Dakota is not alone, with all oil basins seeing reductions in activity. Ness said the Permian Basin in Texas, which produces more than 5 million barrels of oil a day, is looking at a 15% drilling reduction.
The state has weathered downturns before, in 2009 and 2015, and in 2020 at the start of COVID-19 pandemic.
Exploration and drilling of new wells, a massive investment for oil companies, is important to the industry because well outputs decline over time, Ness said.
There are about 30 rigs drilling new wells currently in the state, a number that will begin to decline in the weeks to come with Continental’s moves, and possible reductions by other companies.
“They’re just pacing their new investments for a while, until they feel that outlook is better. A lot of people don’t want that oil produced at $45 to $50. They feel that oil’s worth $75 to $90 a barrel. If you produce it, you’ve got to sell it,” he said.
Forum News Service file photo
While it still takes tens of thousands of people to produce North Dakota’s typical 1.1 million barrels of oil each day, the exploration and drilling side of the industry employs the highest number of people, Ness said.
That workforce tends to be more transient, coming from all over the country and the world, he said, and is where there will likely be layoffs or consolidations, impacts that could be felt by March.
“It certainly is, hopefully, just a short term ramification of news like this,” he said.
Greg Power, fisheries division chief with the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, shares information about the new 2026-2028 Fishing Guide and a few new regulations starting April 1, 2026.
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SIOUX FALLS — Ali Stephens had 17 points and 13 rebounds and 8th-seeded Omaha defeated 9th-seeded North Dakota 49-39 in the first round of the Summit League women’s tournament.
The Fighting Hawks had a tough time putting the ball in the hoop all night long, scoring just three points in the first quarter and having only marginally better luck from there.
UND (7-24) shot just 23.5 percent from the floor (12-for-51) and made 1-of-20 shots from outside the arc. Walker Demers and Mackenzie Hughes had 10 points each to lead the Hawks, with Demers adding eight rebounds.
Matt Zimmer/Sioux Falls Live
Regan Juenemann had 10 points and five rebounds for the Mavericks while Avril Smith had seven points and 16 rebounds and Sarai Estupinan eight points, five assists and three rebounds. Omaha (6-26) shot the ball slightly better than the Hawks, going 16-of-53 from the field (30 percent) and 8-of-23 (35 percent) on 3-pointers.
With the win, the Mavs earn a date with top-seed North Dakota State on Thursday at 2:30 p.m.
The Bison won both regular season matchups by more than 50 points.
Matt Zimmer/Sioux Falls Live
Oral Roberts 84, Kansas City 62 — Don’t look now but the team that started the conference season 0-10 and at one point lost 15 of 16 games might be the hottest in the Summit League.
Oral Roberts picked up their fourth straight victory on Wednesday night in the conference tournament opener, routing Kansas City at the Premier Center in the 8/9 “play-in” game.
Ty Harper had 22 points to lead the Golden Eagles (10-22), who took a 44-21 lead by halftime and never looked back. ORU shot 50 percent from the floor and made 13-of-27 3-pointers while the Kangaroos shot just 34 percent and made 6-of-24 from deep. Martins Kilups had 17 points for the Eagles and Connor Dow added 14.
Jayson Petty had 14 points to lead the Kagaroos, who finish the season 4-27. It was their final game under coach Marvin Menzies, whom the school announced earlier this season would not return next year.
With the win ORU advances to face top-seed North Dakota State on Thursday at 6 p.m.
The Golden Eagles lost to NDSU 86-58 in Tulsa on Jan. 24 but they took the Bison to overtime in Fargo on Jan. 3 in a 79-77 loss.
Matt Zimmer is a Sioux Falls native and longtime sports writer. He graduated from Washington High School where he played football, legion baseball and developed his lifelong love of the Minnesota Twins and Vikings. After graduating from St. Cloud State University, he returned to Sioux Falls, and began a long career in amateur baseball and sports reporting. Email Matt at mzimmer@siouxfallslive.com.
North Dakota
The North Dakota Attorney General issued an opinion to the ND State Auditor – North Dakota Attorney General
04 Mar The North Dakota Attorney General issued an opinion to the ND State Auditor
in Opinions
March 4, 2026
Media Contact: Suzie Weigel, 701.328.2210
BISMARCK, ND – It is the opinion that federal law does not prevent the state from auditing P&A and even though P&A possesses confidential records, N.D.C.C. § 54-10-22.1 and 42 C.F.R. § 51.45(c) authorize the state auditor and the employees of the auditor’s office, to review the records without detriment to P &A.
Also, whether Rule 1.6 of the North Dakota Rules of Professional Conduct for licensed attorneys prohibits P&A from disclosing to the State Auditor the contents of a client file for the purpose of conducting a non-financial performance audit under N.D.C.C. ch. 54-10 when the requested file includes information about individuals and businesses in the private sector who chose to contact P &A.
This issue was already addressed in a 1995 opinion of this office regarding P&A. The 1995 opinion highlighted that P&A has authority to contract with private attorneys to represent private individuals. 17 During that performance audit, auditors asked to see billings from the contracted attorneys. 18 P&A redacted the names of the individuals represented by the contract attorneys under the rules for attorney-client privilege or attorney-client confidentiality. 19 The names of individuals seeking services of P&A are protected under N.D.C.C. § 25-01.3. The opinion stated:
Thus, P&A’s records which indicate to whom its services were provided are available to the State Auditor for performance audit purposes. The State Auditor has
been given access by P&A to its records other than the attorney’s billings. Therefore, the State Auditor already has access to the names of the persons to whom P&A
provides services. State law requires that the State Auditor and his employees must keep such information confidential.
Here, P&A has not identified a specific record. Given that, I rely on the past opinions declaring that records made confidential by N.D.C.C. § 25-01.3-10 are available under N.D.C.C. § 54-10-22 to the State Auditor and the Auditor’s employees for audit purposes.
Link to opinion 2026-L-01
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