It’s been a year since Reese Energy Consulting shared news from producers on the hunt for oil and gas magic on the fringes of basins. Step-outs from core areas, extending shale play extensions, bringing exploration back into the mix. So, maybe the Permian inches closer to its peak now, and the Anadarko and Bakken continue to decline. Maybe the Utica oil window is barely open. Maybe there’s a whole lot more to be discovered.

If you ask Scott Sheffield, former CEO of Pioneer Natural Resources, the time is ripe for public independents and private operators to explore undeveloped formations and plays, Exploration gets Okla. City-based Continental Resources up in the morning. In case you missed it, Enverus last week released its 2024 list of the nation’s 100 most prolific private oil and gas producers in the Lower 48. For the second consecutive year, Continental took home the #1 spot with 639.7 MBOED, 5,055 wells, 21 active rigs. But it wasn’t the company’s 2021 entry into the Permian that clinched the title. Far from it.

Continental, which in 2003 first introduced horizontal drilling and fracking in the N.D., Bakken, was also among the first to explore and develop the Three Forks play, estimated to hold 230 MMBbls of untapped crude. Three Forks is among several Williston Basin formations Continental plans to continue to test. Locations exactly? For now, lips are zipped.