Low Oil Prices Force Billionaire Harold Hamm to Halt Bakken Drilling

OilPrice · Michael Kern · last updated January 16, 2026 – 5:41 AM

If anyone is still wondering whether the Trump Administration’s goal of $50 per barrel oil price would hurt American drillers, the answer came this week from oil tycoon and wildcatter Harold Hamm, who is ceasing drilling operations in North Dakota for the first time in decades. “This will be the first time in over 30 years that Harold Hamm has not had an operation with drilling rigs in North Dakota,” Hamm, who founded Continental Resources, told Bloomberg in a telephone interview published on Friday. “There’s…

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