Crude and Natural Gas Prices on the Rise The Bakken-Three Forks rig count increased this week to 80 rigs running across our coverage area by midday Friday. In recent Bakken news, North Dakota lawmakers cleared the way to change a 30 year old tax structure that gave some tax breaks for the oil industry have been linked to a price “trigger.”  Debate in North Dakota’s House was fierce and ended in a 66-26 vote in favor of cutting the state’s oil tax rate from 11.5 percent to 10 percent. Read more: Lower Oil Tax for North Dakota The U.S. rig count fell again this week by 27 ending, ending with 905 rigs running by midday Friday.  A total of 222 rigs were targeting natural gas (and decrease of three from the previous week) and 679 were targeting oil in the U.S. (24 less than the previous week). The remainder […]