NEWS RELEASE | FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | May 18, 2026
Link to Miscellaneous Series No. 96:
The 75th Anniversary of the Discovery of Oil in North Dakota
BISMARCK, ND–Nathan Anderson, the Director of the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources, announces the release of a Geological Survey report entitled “The 75th Anniversary of the Discovery of Oil in North Dakota” by Nathan Wilkens (Miscellaneous Series No. 96).
Anderson said they wanted to publish this report in time for the 33rd Annual Williston Basin Petroleum Conference. This conference has played an integral part in the development of technical solutions and innovative ideas during the rise in production from the Bakken and Three Forks Formations over the past 25 years.
These two Williston Basin formations have been a major part of the shale revolution which have helped make the United States the highest oil producing country in the world.” The report includes a discussion of the drilling of the Clarence Iverson No. 1 in 1951, the first successful oil well in North Dakota, launching the state’s oil industry and validating earlier efforts by State Geologist Wilson M. Laird to modernize oil-development regulations. Murphy noted that visiting scientists to the Wilson M. Laird Core and Sample Library on the campus of UND, as well as those who tour the facility, are always excited to see boxes of core from the Clarence Iverson No. 1 discovery well. Wilkens’ report highlights the well’s discovery, Laird’s pivotal role in building the state’s geological framework, and the regulatory evolution that shaped North Dakota’s long-term oil development.
This report builds on a Geological Survey report published 25 years ago that documented the first 50 years of oil production in North Dakota. For that reason, the focus in this report is on the discovery and development of the Bakken and Three Forks oil play and some of the people that were instrumental in that play. The report notes the individual contributions of Fred Meissner, Leigh Price, Julie LeFever, Kirk Osadetz, Dan Jarvie, Dick Findley, Lynn Helms, and Ron Ness. It also acknowledges the importance of the resource assessments of the Bakken and Three Forks Formations by the N.D. Department of Mineral Resources and the U.S. Geological Survey. At the end of the report, Wilkens looks to the next 25 years and the innovation and technological advances that will be needed to continue producing hydrocarbons at high rates in the Williston Basin.
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C O N T A C T :
Nathan Wilkens
ndwilkens@nd.gov
701-328-8000