WHAT'S ON YOUR MIND
By Scott Hennen
Host of “What’s On Your Mind?” Radio Show
heard on the Flag Family Network including KTGO 1090AM
in Watford City, Williston and Tioga, North Dakota
Every now and then, a single quote tells you more about an industry than a stack of charts ever could.
“This will be the first time in over 30 years that Harold Hamm has not had an operation with drilling rigs in North Dakota,” Hamm told Bloomberg in a bombshell interview.
That’s not just any executive talking. Harold Hamm is one of the pioneers of horizontal drilling in the Bakken shale play, a founder of Continental Resources, and a man who helped turn North Dakota from a regional oil producer into a global energy story.
And now he’s stepping back.
Why? It comes down to a simple reality that every producer understands, whether they say it out loud or not: prices and margins matter.
“There’s no need to drill it when margins are basically gone,” Hamm said.
That one line captures the awkward tension playing out across the American oil patch right now. On the one hand, the Trump administration is working feverishly to cut regulations, speed up approvals, and open new markets for American energy. That’s real. And it matters. But these things don’t happen overnight. Policy can change quickly. The business environment doesn’t.
In the meantime, operators still have to make drilling decisions based on today’s math.
The U.S. shale industry has survived two major crashes in the past decade and came back stronger each time, pushing production above 13 million barrels per day. But the latest challenge isn’t just volatility - it’s break-evens.
In major shale plays, break-even economics are hovering close to $60 per barrel WTI. Yet in recent months, the benchmark price has struggled to stay above that level consistently. In the Bakken, the breakeven for drilling a new well is now around $58 per barrel, up about 4% from a year ago as costs have risen.
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