Murex Petroleum drilled the Stacey-Lynne 1-12H in the West Bank field southwest of Tioga and was the first economically successful horizontal Middle Bakken well in North Dakota.

More than 38 years had passed since oil was discovered in North Dakota when industry leaders, elected officials and the public gathered in Williston to celebrate a major milestone: the production of the first cumulative billionth barrel of crude oil produced in North Dakota.

This occasion, commemorated on Friday, October 27, 1989, included an oilfield tour for reporters, speeches, a banquet and a dance. Attendees received vials of oil and a card that read, “This crude oil was taken from an oil well located one mile from Clarence Iverson #1 in North Dakota’s Williston Basin oilfield on October 23, 1989 at 3:15 p.m.”

During the event, participants praised North Dakota’s oil history and anxiously discussed its future. The state had ridden its fair share of booms and busts, but a new technique was showing some promise.

Two years prior, on July 1, 1987, Meridian (Burlington) Oil deployed horizontal drilling in the Upper Bakken Shale for the first time. It was known for years the Bakken Formation contained billions of barrels of oil, but few had managed to produce it economically. Burlington’s well proved that horizontal drilling increased the success of striking oil in the Bakken Formation and it spurred new activity that continued through the early ’90s.

The activity stagnated, however, as the low permeability reservoir was still not giving up enough oil to be economic. By 1996, the North Dakota Geological Survey deemed the venture unfeasible unless a way to stimulate the rock could be found. Until then, they reported, the Bakken would only be seen as a “bailout” zone.

Harold Hamm, CEO of Continental Resources, was an early adopter of horizontal drilling and had opened the Cedar Hills Field in southwest North Dakota, which was the first significant, horizontally-drilled, commercial oilfield in North Dakota in the 1990s. He had been watching the activity in the Bakken closely.

“We knew that it took more than just a horizontal wellbore (to unlock the Bakken),” he said. “We had to figure out better ways to do it to get to the point that it was commercial.”

In a turn of events, a “bailout” operation in the Bakken would lead to a significant breakthrough. In 1995, Kelly Oil and Gas drilled the Albin-FLB 2-33 targeting the Nisku formation in Montana. The well was dry, but seeing porosity in the Middle Bakken, they decided to “bail out,” or tap the formation to try and get any oil they could. They decided to perf the well, and to their surprise, the well not only produced — it kept flowing.

Kelly Oil & Gas had an idea that the Middle Bakken could be drilled horizontally and began reviewing old well logs. It was then that they realized oil wasn’t in the Upper Bakken as previously believed, but rather, the Middle Bakken. They were sitting on a potentially massive field that geologist Dick Fridley coined “the Sleeping Giant.”

In 2000, after partnering with Lyco Energy, they drilled the Burning Tree State 36-2H well in Richland County, Montana, using both hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling for the first time. This innovative approach paved the way for the discovery and development of the Elm Coulee Field in Montana.

Continental Resources was a major developer in the Elm Coulee Field and soon set its sights on North Dakota. Although they had found the key to the Bakken in Montana, it would take more to unlock it in North Dakota. It would take perseverance.

“What worked in Montana did not work in North Dakota. It was something some people would probably give up on. It was hard. But we were good drillers and we felt like we knew we could do it,” said Hamm, who would lead Continental to become one of North Dakota’s biggest producers.

Others had been watching the developments in Montana. Long-time oilman Dan Bauste was leasing tracts in the Tioga area and met with Don Kessel, then vice president of Murex Petroleum. Kessel reviewed the well logs and was convinced to join Bauste’s prospect, purchase additional leases, and pool their acreage.

“That’s how we got into it,” said Kessel. “We were just in the right place at the right time and lucky.”

Murex approached other operators, including Hess Corporation, about participating. When that failed, Murex went ahead with permitting the well to entice them to reconsider. When that also failed, Murex and Bauste went ahead and contracted a rig and on November 7, 2004, they spud the Stacey-Lynn 1-12H.

It was a big risk for a small, privately-owned company, but it would soon pay off.

“When they were going to get their samples from the shale shakers and walking back to their skid shack, the oil was running out of the bottom of the sacks,” said Kessel. “We ruined that brand-new trailer and the smell of it just from the crude oil, you couldn’t hardly sleep in it. But, it was a lot of fun, and I’m glad Hess didn’t buy this acreage!”

The well was producing 65 barrels per hour but required fishing and maintenance before it could be completed. Fishing is the procedure of recovering lost or stuck equipment in the wellbore.

“We would flow the well at night, so we could try to retrieve a fish from the well during the day. Everybody from several miles around could see the flare going off at night,” said Kessel. “So what the Stacey-Lynne did is prove to us in the industry – and everybody outside the industry – that there was something there to be chased.”

The well was the first drilled in the West Bank field southwest of Tioga and the first economically successful horizontal Middle Bakken well in North Dakota.

Meanwhile, geologist Michael S. Johnson had been searching for unleased lands with a geology similar to Elm Coulee and settled on a prospect 110 miles away near Parshall, in Mountrail County. He and his partners leased 44,000 acres and actively looked for months for an operator to drill it. Finally, in 2005, they drew the interest of EOG Resources, which was officially assigned the “Parshall Prospect” in early 2006.

By April 11, EOG was drilling and on June 6, 2006, the company hit it big. The Bakken Boom had begun. Drilling and leasing activity took off at a frenzied pace in what was to become one of the most prolific oil fields in the United States.

The pace of development in the Bakken was rapid. When the state was celebrating its billionth barrel in 1989, the Bakken had only produced about 14 million cumulative barrels. By 2004, the Bakken production was hovering at 38 million barrels produced. By February of 2024 — just 20 years after modern development technologies were deployed in North Dakota — the Bakken surpassed its five billionth barrel of oil.

The technological revolution that unlocked the Bakken not only led to this remarkable increase in production, it also unlocked billions of additional barrels of oil once thought to be inaccessible. Because of the ingenuity and tenacity of today’s Bakken pioneers, North Dakota can look forward to billions more in production from current wells and new drilling.