as of 2026-08-27

Formentera Operations, LLC — Active Bakken Developer Pressing Hard Across Burke & Divide Counties

306

Producing now

512

Total wells

Pending cases

Wells authorized

100%

Win rate

2026-08-27

Next hearing

Producing now306 / 512

Active (status A/AC)287 / 512

Plugged / abandoned86 / 512

Formentera Operations, LLC is a mid-scale North Dakota Bakken operator with a portfolio of 512 total wells, 287 active and 306 currently producing, concentrated in Burke and Divide counties. As of late August 2026, the company is running 7 pending regulatory cases and has 10 wells authorized, with a 100% historical win rate and a near-certain 99.9% progression probability on its highest-stakes open case. Recent orders — spanning pooling, spacing, and salt water disposal — confirm sustained permitting velocity in Divide County, while the pending docket signals a simultaneous push into Burke County's Black Slough-Bakken. The operator's work-type footprint covers the full development stack, from new-pad construction and drilling rigs through frac crews, water logistics, and rentals.

What stands out

306 wells are producing now but only 287 are classified as 'active' — meaning a non-trivial slice of the producing base sits outside the active category, a flag worth probing for temporary shutdowns, workover queues, or reporting gaps before assuming the production number is clean.
Formentera appears to have just completed the subsurface groundwork in Frazier-Bakken and Bluffton-Bakken (pooling, spacing, and SWD orders all signed in June–August 2026) and is now pivoting its hearing calendar to the Colgan/Big Dipper corridor in Divide and to Black Slough in Burke — a classic sequential land-and-permit pattern that suggests the next drill program is already staged.
A 100% win rate combined with a 99.9% ML progression probability on the open 1,920-acre Colgan/Big Dipper spacing case makes that authorization essentially a formality — the commercial question is how quickly the 4 authorized wells get spudded, not whether approval comes.
Four of the 7 pending cases are well authorizations in Burke County's Black Slough-Bakken, all clustered on the same August 27 and September 24 hearing dates — an unusually concentrated burst that points to a specific new pad or multi-well program being assembled there right now.

Docket & Locations

Formentera carries 7 pending cases across Burke and Divide counties, with the next hearing date on 2026-08-27 and a follow-on slate on 2026-09-24. The anchor case is 32947 — a spacing unit application in Divide County covering Sections 8, 17, and 20 of T.163N., R.101W., targeting the Colgan-Bakken and Big Dipper-Bakken pools across 1,920 acres, with 4 wells sought. That case has been continued from its first hearing on 2026-06-25 and carries a progression probability of 99.9% against a 100% historical win rate. The remaining 6 cases are all single-well authorizations: 4 in Burke County's Black Slough-Bakken (cases 33142, 33143, 33144, 33218) and 1 each in Divide County's Noonan-Bakken (33145) and Burke County's Forthun Field (33219).

sources: mom-pending, mom-next_hearing, mom-counties, mom-win_rate, mom-avg_prob, hr-32947, hr-33144, hr-33143, hr-33142, hr-33145, hr-33218, hr-33219, case-32947

Portfolio

The total well count stands at 512, of which 287 are active and 86 are plugged. 306 wells are currently producing — a figure that exceeds the active count, flagging a subset of producing wells that fall outside the standard active classification. This warrants scrutiny: those wells may be in temporary shutdown, awaiting workover, or reflect a reporting category distinction. The operator's work-type coverage is comprehensive: drilling rigs, frac crews, frac sand, new-pad dirt and construction, rentals and workforce, and water logistics and trucking — indicating Formentera manages or contracts the full development cycle in-house rather than relying on a narrow slice of the service stack.

sources: port-total, port-active, port-plugged, port-producing_now

Recent Orders & Cases

Eight orders have been signed since June 2026, all in Divide County. The most recent are two Salt Water Disposal Authorizations in Noonan Field (orders 35908 and 36023, signed 2026-08-21) and a Pooling Order in Bluffton-Bakken Pool (order 35881, signed 2026-08-17). Earlier in July, Formentera secured two SWD authorizations in Baukol Noonan (35906, 35907) and two Pooling Orders in Frazier-Bakken Pool (35912, 35913). The foundational piece was a Spacing Unit Establishment and Lease-Line Well Authorization in Frazier-Bakken Pool (order 35798, signed 2026-06-12). Notably, none of the pending hearing cases return to Frazier-Bakken or Bluffton-Bakken, consistent with the read that regulatory groundwork there is complete and the operator's active docket has shifted to new targets.

sources: ord-35908, ord-36023, ord-35881, ord-35906, ord-35907, ord-35912, ord-35913, ord-35798

Convergence & What to Watch

Two threads converge on the same near-term window. First, the 1,920-acre Colgan/Big Dipper spacing case (32947) is effectively decided — the 99.9% probability and 100% win rate leave little regulatory risk; the watch item is spud timing on the 4 authorized wells, none of which have been spudded or permitted yet. Second, the Black Slough-Bakken well authorization cluster in Burke County (4 cases across two hearing dates) suggests a pad program is being assembled in parallel. If both threads execute, Formentera will be running simultaneous development programs in two counties — a ramp indicator consistent with the momentum score of 17.0 noted in the data.

sources: hr-32947, mom-win_rate, mom-avg_prob, mom-ramp, hr-33144, hr-33143, hr-33142, hr-33218, case-32947

Hearing locations

Case	County	Pool	Precision	Map
32947	Divide	Colgan-Bakken, Big Dipper-Bakken	legal	📍 map
33144	Burke	Black Slough-Bakken	legal	📍 map
33143	Burke	Black Slough-Bakken	legal	📍 map
33145	Divide	Noonan-Bakken	legal	📍 map
33142	Burke	Black Slough-Bakken	legal	📍 map
33218	Burke County	Black Slough Field	legal	📍 map
33219	Burke County	Forthun Field	legal	📍 map