Copper Ridge Disposal LLC

05/27/2026

05/25/2026

🚨 HAROLD HAMM STOOD UP IN BISMARCK YESTERDAY AND SAID THE RIGS ARE COMING BACK.

At the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference, the founder of Continental Resources told a room of 2,700 oil and gas leaders what the Bakken has been waiting to hear since January.

Continental Resources is drilling again in North Dakota before the end of 2026.

In January, Hamm pulled every rig out of North Dakota for the first time in 30 years. The man who proved the Bakken would work. The man who drilled the first commercially successful horizontal Bakken well in 2004. The man who built the company that holds 1.3 Million acres in the Williston Basin.

He walked away from all of it because oil was $60 a barrel and the math didn't work.

Yesterday the math worked.

His exact words...

"A great deal has changed."

"We'll be back to work. But we're not giving it away now."

What changed is the Iran war. The Strait of Hormuz has been disrupted since February. 20 Million barrels a day of global supply choked off. WTI sitting near $100. The same basin Hamm walked away from in January is now printing money again.

And it's not just Continental.

North Dakota's top oil regulator Nathan Anderson confirmed what every hand in the field is hoping for...

"I've heard not only Continental...I've heard another company that's going to pick up another rig."

23 rigs are running in North Dakota right now. That number is about to move.

That's not all that happened in Bismarck.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers signed the final Record of Decision on the Dakota Access Pipeline. A decade of legal battles. A decade of protests. A decade of uncertainty over the single most important piece of oil infrastructure in the state.

It's permanent now.

More than 500,000 Barrels a day of Bakken crude...fully authorized...pipeline secure.

The man who built the Bakken came to Bismarck and put his name on the recovery.

Rigs are coming back. Pipeline is secured. The basin that produced over 1.5 Million barrels a day at its peak is getting the call again.

The Bakken isn't finished. Not even close.

05/03/2026

📊 547 RIGS RUNNING IN THE US.
OIL ABOVE $100 & THEY'RE BARELY ADDING MORE.

Baker Hughes released the weekly count today.

Up 3 from last week. 544 to 547.

WTI sitting mostly above $95 for weeks and the Hormuz blockade may stay longer.

Operators are tiptoeing up, not charging.

Nobody wants to go full ramp only to eat it when prices pull back.

Boom & bust memory in this industry is long.

For hands in the field:
work is steady. The big hiring wave some expected hasn't shown up yet.

Are operators being smart?

Or leaving money on the table?

05/01/2026

🔥 Trump Just Authorized A New 550,000 Barrel Per Day Pipeline From Canada To Wyoming.

Yesterday. Presidential permit signed. 647 miles. Montana to Wyoming.

Here's what it actually is.

The Bridger Pipeline Expansion would carry up to 550,000 barrels of Canadian crude per day from the Saskatchewan border in Phillips County, Montana south through eastern Montana to Guernsey, Wyoming...where it connects to existing U.S. infrastructure.

It's not Keystone XL. But it's the next best thing.

Keystone XL was 1,200 miles and 830,000 bpd. Biden killed it on day one. Bridger is 647 miles, 550,000 bpd, avoids every Native American reservation, runs 70% through existing pipeline corridors, and 80% on private land. Same oil. Different route. Harder to kill.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith didn't wait long to respond. She called it proof that advocacy works...and said Alberta producers will now be able to produce more of the oil the world needs.

The company behind it is Bridger Pipeline LLC out of Casper, Wyoming...same outfit that already runs 3,700 miles of crude pipe through the Williston Basin and Powder River Basin. They know this ground.

The numbers.

• 550,000 barrels per day at peak
• 647 miles — Phillips County, Montana to Guernsey, Wyoming
• 36-inch diameter
• Construction target: fall 2027
• In-service target: late 2028 or early 2029
• Design allows future expansion to 1.13 million bpd

Trump's term ends January 20, 2029. They're racing the clock.

What's still needed.

A presidential permit is one approval. Not all of them. BLM environmental review is underway. Montana DEQ still needs to sign off. Wyoming permits outstanding. Environmental groups are already lining up to fight it.

This gets built if the courts stay out of it and the next administration doesn't kill it. Both are real risks.

For the patch.

This isn't a Bakken line. It's Canadian heavy crude moving south. But Bridger already operates 3,700 miles of Williston Basin pipe and just acquired 210 miles of North Dakota gathering assets in late 2025. They're building a corridor. Guernsey is becoming a major hub.

More takeaway capacity means more market access. More market access means more drilling. You do the math.

Biden killed Keystone XL on day one. Trump just signed the replacement. Construction starts fall 2027. They need to beat the clock before January 20, 2029.

The question isn't whether they want to build it. The question is whether the courts let them.

02/02/2026

Devon Energy and Coterra Energy have agreed to merge in an all-stock transaction that will create one of the largest and most scaled shale producers in the United States, underscoring a renewed wave of consolidation across the U.S. unconventional sector.