History in North Dakota and the Bakken
Written by Fort Union from the public sources listed below; bracketed numbers refer to that list.
Entry through Burlington Resources
ConocoPhillips' Bakken position came to it through acquisitions rather than a ground-up drilling program. In December 2005 ConocoPhillips announced an agreement to acquire Burlington Resources; the merger presentation filed with the SEC set terms of $46.50 in cash plus 0.7214 ConocoPhillips shares for each Burlington share, put the enterprise value at $35.6 billion including net debt, and named shareholder approval in the first quarter of 2006 and regulatory clearances in the first half of 2006 as the main conditions to closing [1].
In that same presentation Burlington described a Bakken Shale position of 67,000 net acres, an unconventional oil exploration program that was ramping up its drilling, and net production listed as '6 Mpd' [1]. The presentation does not give a state split for that acreage.
Burlington's name in state records today
That Burlington heritage is still visible in North Dakota records. The Department of Mineral Resources' 2026 top-ten slide shows ConocoPhillips at 36.21 million barrels of year-to-date oil production through August 2026, or 13.0% of North Dakota's total, and attributes about 22.3 million barrels of it to Burlington and about 13.9 million to the former Marathon assets [2]. The DMR's active-rig list, as read on October 25, 2026, showed three rigs under the name Burlington Resources Oil & Gas Company LP: two in Dunn County and one in McKenzie County [3].
Marathon Oil
The second major step was Marathon Oil. ConocoPhillips' 2024 annual report says it acquired Marathon Oil in November 2024 in a $22.5 billion all-stock transaction, adding inventory next to its existing Eagle Ford, Bakken and Permian positions; the report puts the completion at November 22, 2024 and says the combined company has more than 2 billion barrels of resource added through the deal [4]. The report's Bakken section shows 2024 net production of 115 thousand barrels of oil equivalent a day (66 thousand of crude oil, 22 thousand of NGLs and 164 million cubic feet a day of gas), a figure that includes Marathon only from November 22 [4].
State well counts compiled by a third-party aggregator still list Marathon Oil Company as a separate operator name, with well records concentrated in Dunn County [5]. Owners may therefore see either name on statements during and after integration.
Operations in 2024 and 2025
In its 2024 annual report ConocoPhillips said the primary Bakken producing zones are the Middle Bakken and Three Forks, and that during 2024 it operated four rigs and one frac crew on average, drilling 66 operated wells and bringing 83 operated wells online [4]. Its Lower 48 operations page, covering 2025, says the company holds approximately 799,000 net acres in the Williston Basin in North Dakota and eastern Montana; it ran an average of three rigs and one frac crew during 2025, drilled 72 operated wells and brought 98 operated wells online. The page also describes a Bakken joint agreement with partners and says ConocoPhillips participates in partner-operated wells when they meet its investment criteria [6].
Current footprint
In its second-quarter 2026 results, issued August 6, 2026, ConocoPhillips reported Bakken production of 189 thousand barrels of oil equivalent a day, out of 1,479 thousand for its Lower 48 segment [7]. The same release said the company signed agreements to sell noncore Lower 48 assets for $1.7 billion, which closed in July; the release did not say those assets were in the Bakken [7]. ConocoPhillips' own history page lists the company's lineage as including Conoco, Phillips, Concho, Marathon Oil, Burlington Resources, DuPont, Marland Oil, Continental Oil and Standard Oil, and records the Marathon Oil completion in 2024 [8].
Context for royalty owners
For mineral owners the paying entity on a given North Dakota well may carry a predecessor's name (Burlington or Marathon), and division orders issued by one legacy company may be re-papered after integration. ConocoPhillips publishes an Owner Relations contact page and a division order information page; both are linked on its operator card on our index, and an owner number is required for inquiries.
Relevant news and sources
The sources this history was drawn from, in the order they are first cited. Links were checked when this page was built.
- Burlington Resources / ConocoPhillips merger investor presentation (Schedule 14A) — SEC, Dec 2005.
- Director's Cut, October 2026: Top 10 oil producers in ND (slide 18) — ND Department of Mineral Resources, Oct 20, 2026. Year-to-date oil production through August 2026.
- Active Drilling Rig List — ND Department of Mineral Resources, read Oct 25, 2026. Live page that changes daily; counts quoted here are as read on Oct 25, 2026.
- ConocoPhillips 2024 Annual Report — ConocoPhillips, 2025.
- Largest Oil & Gas Operators in North Dakota (well counts on record) — Buckhead Energy (third-party data aggregator), read Oct 25, 2026. Aggregator data, shown for context only.
- Lower 48 (Bakken section) — ConocoPhillips, read Oct 25, 2026.
- ConocoPhillips announces second-quarter 2026 results and quarterly dividend — ConocoPhillips, Aug 6, 2026.
- Our history — ConocoPhillips, read Oct 25, 2026.
Logos are trademarks of their respective owners and are used here only to identify each company; their use does not imply affiliation with or endorsement by Fort Union Minerals. Ranking basis: 2026 year-to-date oil production through August, million barrels; source: North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources, Director's Cut (October 20, 2026), slide 18.
