MARTENS PLLC LAW BLOG

Via Seeking Alpha - When investors hear the word "Bakken," the companies that usually come to mind are Continental Resources (CLR), Whiting Petroleum (WLL), or perhaps Statoil (STO). However, Exxon Mobil (XOM) has ~570,000 acres in the tight-oil play across North...

Via KFGO: Minnesota District Court Judge Steven Cahill dismissed charges against two individuals in Clay County who refused to submit to blood alcohol tests on the basis that the U.S. Supreme Court's holding in Missouri v. McNeely, 133 S.Ct. 1552 (2013), requires law...

As North Dakota oil production approaches the milestone of producing 1 million barrels a day, CEOs of three top Bakken companies said Thursday that's only the beginning. Continental Resources CEO Harold Hamm said he projects that technology advancements will push the...

The Dakota Prairie Refining facility under construction four miles west of Dickinson is about $50 million over budget but remains on track to start refining crude in December, a project official said last Tuesday at the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in...

The Bureau of Land Management auctioned oil and gas leases on 22 parcels in northern Billings, northeastern Golden Valley and northwestern Slope counties, netting $2.9 million, said Kristen Lenhardt, a bureau public affairs specialist. via Prairie Business Magazine

HuffPo via The Associated Press: Just 274 wells accounted for around 60 percent of all flaring of natural gas in North Dakota in December, said Chad Wocken, senior research manager at UND's EERC,Tuesday at the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in Bismarck...

The Wall Street Journal: Crude oil from the Bakken Shale formation doesn't pose special risks to rail transport and shouldn't require a separate classification regime than other hazardous liquids, North Dakota oil producers said in a study released Tuesday.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The future of crude oil shipments by train depends on proving to the public that it can be done safely, BNSF Railway Co. Executive Chairman Matt Rose told several hundred people at the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in Bismarck BNSF said...

When it comes to shale plays, Texas' own Eagle Ford Shale and Permian Basin are still the kings of oil production. North Dakota's Bakken Shale is gaining fast, though, as it just surpassed the 1 million barrels per day mark in March, according to the Energy...

U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Hovland dismissed a series of lawsuits filed against oil and gas companies by North Dakota mineral owners who claim they are owed royalty payments for natural gas illegally flared from oil wells. Hovland ruled that the mineral owners...