[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-\u002Fblog\u002Fnorth-dakota-plss-bakken-5th-principal-meridian":3},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"cover":187,"date":188,"description":189,"draft":190,"extension":191,"meta":192,"navigation":208,"path":209,"seo":210,"stem":211,"tags":212,"__hash__":220},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fnorth-dakota-plss-bakken-5th-principal-meridian.md","North Dakota PLSS Legal Descriptions: Bakken Well Permitting on the 5th Principal Meridian",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":175},"minimark",[9,13,18,21,24,28,44,55,59,62,71,75,78,88,96,100,111,119,123,138,141,145,148,160,164,167],[10,11,12],"p",{},"Bakken permitting runs at a different tempo than the rest of the country. When a McKenzie County pad hits the schedule, the landman's job is to confirm the North Dakota PLSS legal description points at the right 40 acres before the Application for Permit to Drill leaves the desk. Fumble a Range digit and the surface location moves a full six miles. Miss the meridian entirely and BLM's Dickinson Field Office bounces the file back to your queue. This guide walks through how North Dakota's grid is built, where the active Bakken sections sit, and the description errors that delay a 3160-3.",[14,15,17],"h2",{"id":16},"one-meridian-covers-almost-the-whole-state","One meridian covers almost the whole state",[10,19,20],{},"The 5th Principal Meridian is the anchor for nearly every North Dakota PLSS legal description. Its initial point is a monument far to the south in eastern Arkansas, and Township counts step north from that baseline all the way through the Williston Basin. From the Montana state line to the Red River Valley, most of North Dakota reads off the 5th PM.",[10,22,23],{},"The single narrow exception is a strip along the far northeast corner, where portions of the earliest surveys against the Red River were originally referenced to the 4th Principal Meridian. In practical terms, if you are permitting anywhere west of the Red River Valley, assume the 5th PM and confirm it is spelled out on every description before it moves.",[14,25,27],{"id":26},"bakken-geography-by-plss-address","Bakken geography by PLSS address",[10,29,30,31,35,36,39,40,43],{},"Almost all of North Dakota's active drilling sits inside four counties: McKenzie, Williams, Mountrail, and Dunn. Their townships run roughly ",[32,33,34],"strong",{},"T150N through T160N"," north of the baseline and ",[32,37,38],{},"R80W through R105W"," west of the 5th Principal Meridian. Take ",[32,41,42],{},"T152N R95W Sec 22, 5th Principal Meridian",": that lands in McKenzie County, west of Watford City, in the heart of the Middle Bakken and Three Forks producing intervals.",[10,45,46,47,50,51,54],{},"Read the description the way the grid is built. T152N is the 152nd tier of townships north of the baseline. R95W is the 95th range west of the meridian. Sec 22 is one of the 36 one-mile sections inside that township. Add an aliquot part (",[32,48,49],{},"NW¼ Sec 22",") and you get the northwest quarter, 160 acres. Add another division (",[32,52,53],{},"NW¼ NW¼ Sec 22",") and you read it right to left: the northwest quarter of the northwest quarter, a 40-acre parcel. On a horizontal Bakken unit, that 40-acre call is often the pooled tract carrying the operator's working interest, so the aliquot part is not optional detail.",[14,56,58],{"id":57},"blm-dickinson-the-federal-apd-routing-point","BLM Dickinson: the federal APD routing point",[10,60,61],{},"BLM North Dakota processes federal APDs through the Dickinson Field Office. Its jurisdiction covers the state's federal minerals across the Williston Basin, and Form 3160-3 requires the surface location in complete PLSS notation: Township, Range, Section, aliquot part to at least the quarter-quarter, and the principal meridian written out. A description missing the meridian is the fastest way to earn a resubmission notice.",[10,63,64,65,70],{},"Split-estate parcels multiply the paperwork. Federal minerals under private surface still route through Dickinson, but the surface-owner consent runs on a separate track. Both packages need identical PLSS calls, and any inconsistency between the APD, the surface use agreement, and the Master Development Plan puts the file back in the queue. The ",[66,67,69],"a",{"href":68},"\u002Fblog\u002Fplss-apd-workflow-guide-2026","APD workflow guide"," walks through the full federal filing pipeline for teams new to BLM North Dakota.",[14,72,74],{"id":73},"_1280-acre-horizontal-spacing-units","1,280-acre horizontal spacing units",[10,76,77],{},"Bakken horizontals are drilled on 1,280-acre spacing units, and that number is not arbitrary. A 1,280-acre unit is two adjoining sections stacked north-south, typically a section paired with the section directly to its north. The horizontal wellbore runs the long axis of the two-section unit, about two miles from heel to toe, staying inside the pooled acreage the whole way.",[10,79,80,81,83,84,87],{},"That geometry has a direct consequence for the PLSS legal description on your permit and division-order package. Every 1,280-acre unit is described as two full sections, plus the aliquot parts that identify the surface location and each pooled tract inside the unit. The North Dakota Industrial Commission's Form 1 filing needs the same PLSS block, plus footage from the section lines. A call that reads ",[32,82,42],{}," describes the surface location, but the pooled unit is ",[32,85,86],{},"Sec 15 and Sec 22, T152N R95W, 5th Principal Meridian",", which is a different statement about a different acreage.",[10,89,90,91,95],{},"For a multi-pad program running across several units, every section and every aliquot part needs to be validated before the package moves. The ",[66,92,94],{"href":93},"\u002Fguides\u002Fbatch-conversion","batch conversion"," workflow takes a CSV of PLSS descriptions and returns coordinates plus section polygons for every entry, so a 30-well package is a single upload instead of 30 lookups. Unlimited batch and CSV upload live on the Business plan ($40\u002Fuser\u002Fmo), which is also where the structured exports (CSV, KML, Shapefile, GeoJSON, DXF) needed to load unit boundaries into ArcGIS or QGIS come from.",[14,97,99],{"id":98},"cross-state-bakken-where-the-5th-pm-ends","Cross-state Bakken: where the 5th PM ends",[10,101,102,103,106,107,110],{},"The Bakken does not stop at the Montana state line, but the 5th Principal Meridian does. West of the border, PLSS work reads off the Montana Principal Meridian, whose initial point is a separate monument near Willow Creek, Montana. Township numbering restarts against that origin, which means ",[32,104,105],{},"T152N R105W, 5th Principal Meridian"," in westernmost McKenzie County is not adjacent to ",[32,108,109],{},"T25N R58E, Montana Principal Meridian",", even when the two sections share a fence line on the ground.",[10,112,113,114,118],{},"Cross-state operators running Elm Coulee or Richland County acreage alongside a Williston program have to keep the meridian explicit on every APD, every unit call, and every lease exhibit. The ",[66,115,117],{"href":116},"\u002Fblog\u002Fwyoming-plss-legal-descriptions-powder-river-wind-river","Wyoming Powder River guide"," covers the same discipline for a state where the 6th Principal Meridian similarly stops at the state line, and the same lesson applies here: a Range number without a meridian is not a location.",[14,120,122],{"id":121},"government-lots-along-the-missouri-river","Government lots along the Missouri River",[10,124,125,126,129,130,133,134,137],{},"The North Dakota grid does not close cleanly against the Missouri River. Where the original GLO survey ran up to the river's edge, the surveyor recorded ",[32,127,128],{},"government lots"," instead of full quarter-quarter parcels. In Mountrail and Williams counties, sections along the Fort Berthold and Sanish reaches carry lot descriptions like ",[32,131,132],{},"Lot 4, Sec 6, T153N R91W"," rather than ",[32,135,136],{},"SW¼ SW¼ Sec 6",".",[10,139,140],{},"Acreage on a government lot is set by the original survey and lives in the township plat, not in the lot number itself. A title examiner who assumes Lot 4 equals 40 acres of SW¼ SW¼ will misstate the mineral acreage and, on a producing well, misstate the royalty decimal. When a North Dakota PLSS legal description carries a lot number, pull the plat before you rely on the acreage.",[14,142,144],{"id":143},"split-estate-in-north-dakota","Split estate in North Dakota",[10,146,147],{},"Split estate is common across the Bakken. On thousands of federal-mineral parcels in Dunn, McKenzie, and Mountrail counties, the surface is patented to a private owner (often through the Homestead Act or historic railroad grants) while the minerals stayed with the United States. A landman working a single well often runs two chains of title against one PLSS description, and each has its own permitting path.",[10,149,150,151,154,155,159],{},"Reading split estate from a PLSS legal description is a matter of layering. Take ",[32,152,153],{},"T148N R94W Sec 24, 5th Principal Meridian, Dunn County",". The surface record at the county recorder's office shows the fee owner. The federal MTP plat and the case file at LR2000 show the federal reservation. Both records point at the same 640-acre section but at different sticks of the estate bundle. The ",[66,156,158],{"href":157},"\u002Fblog\u002Fenergy-pack-federal-land-leasing-offset-wells-split-estate-landmen","Energy data pack overview"," covers how federal subsurface, BLM lease boundaries, and ONRR royalty data layer over the same PLSS grid so a Bakken landman can spot federal reservations before the APD is drafted.",[14,161,163],{"id":162},"put-a-bakken-description-on-the-map","Put a Bakken description on the map",[10,165,166],{},"North Dakota's grid is legible once you know where the 5th Principal Meridian starts and where the Montana Principal Meridian takes over. The errors that resubmit an APD in Dickinson are the same errors that resubmit one in Buffalo or Casper: a wrong meridian, a transposed Range, a missing aliquot part. The fix is the same too. Validate every description against survey data before the package leaves your desk.",[10,168,169,170,174],{},"Paste any North Dakota PLSS legal description into the ",[66,171,173],{"href":172},"\u002Fnorth-dakota-plss-converter","North Dakota PLSS converter"," and you get verified latitude and longitude, county, and the section polygon drawn on a map in seconds. For a multi-well Williston program, run the CSV through batch conversion on the Business plan, export the boundaries to Shapefile or GeoJSON, and drop them straight into your GIS before the APD queue closes.",{"title":176,"searchDepth":177,"depth":177,"links":178},"",2,[179,180,181,182,183,184,185,186],{"id":16,"depth":177,"text":17},{"id":26,"depth":177,"text":27},{"id":57,"depth":177,"text":58},{"id":73,"depth":177,"text":74},{"id":98,"depth":177,"text":99},{"id":121,"depth":177,"text":122},{"id":143,"depth":177,"text":144},{"id":162,"depth":177,"text":163},null,"2026-07-08T10:00:00Z","Read a North Dakota PLSS legal description for Bakken Basin APD work: the 5th Principal Meridian, Dickinson field office routing, and 1,280-acre spacing units.",false,"md",{"author":193,"category":194,"faqs":195},"Township America","industry",[196,199,202,205],{"question":197,"answer":198},"Does all of North Dakota use the 5th Principal Meridian?","Most of it. The 5th Principal Meridian covers North Dakota from the Montana line through the Red River Valley, including every active Bakken county. A narrow strip in the far northeast falls inside the 4th Principal Meridian's original survey, but any well permitted across the Williston Basin reads off the 5th PM.",{"question":200,"answer":201},"Which BLM field office processes North Dakota APDs?","The BLM Dickinson Field Office handles Form 3160-3 for the state's federal minerals. The APD needs Township, Range, Section, the aliquot part to at least the quarter-quarter, and the principal meridian written out in full. A missing meridian line is the most common cause of resubmission.",{"question":203,"answer":204},"Why are Bakken horizontal spacing units 1,280 acres?","A 1,280-acre unit stacks two adjoining sections north-south so a horizontal wellbore can run about two miles inside the pooled acreage from heel to toe. The unit is called by both section numbers, for example Sec 15 and Sec 22, T152N R95W, 5th Principal Meridian, and the surface location adds an aliquot part for the pad.",{"question":206,"answer":207},"Which Township America plan supports polygon export for GIS integration?","The Business plan ($40 per user, per month) includes unlimited batch conversion, CSV upload, and structured exports in CSV, KML, Shapefile, GeoJSON, and DXF, plus the MCP server for AI-agent workflows. Pro ($20\u002Fmo) covers unlimited search, boundary draw, and PDF export but does not include batch or structured GIS exports.",true,"\u002Fblog\u002Fnorth-dakota-plss-bakken-5th-principal-meridian",{"title":5,"description":189},"blog\u002Fnorth-dakota-plss-bakken-5th-principal-meridian",[213,214,215,216,217,218,219],"PLSS","North Dakota","Bakken Basin","5th Principal Meridian","landman","APD","oil and gas","74_y04Ki2wL_KFWA3TnoqXh7_52sez24wg1P0zULbdY"]