After a slow start to deal making in 2017, the Bakken Shale has built up its A&D steam to roughly tea kettle strength.

The Bakken’s A&D haul stands at about $185 million in value, grouping it with the Utica, Marcellus and other plays that are collectively about $21 billion behind the Permian Basin.

But the oil-rich Bakken has not been forgotten, and E&Ps likely will comb the Williston Basin for deals that boost their economics. Other E&Ps may decide to prune their portfolios or exit for more profitable areas.

Overall, Bakken deal activity has been sparse and inexpensive in 2017. In 2016, four shale deals were announced at a total value of $2.9 billion.

In the most recently announced deal, Canadian E&P Crescent Point said April 27 that in the first quarter the company purchased 8,500 net acres in Williams County, N.D., for $100 million. The asset is primarily undeveloped land with about 50 net drilling locations and about $250 million of future development opportunities.

Production on the asset is about 375 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d). Crescent’s deal was only the third publicly disclosed transaction in the Williston this year, and the first to hit the $100 million mark.

On April 26, Resource Energy Can-Am LLC agreed to buy Divide County, N.D., assets for $34.7 million. A PwC report also recently noted a first-quarter 2017 Bakken deal for $51 million.

Still, the A&D terrain in the Williston is tricky going forward, and timing and prices will continue playing havoc with deal flow. Art Krasny, managing director at Wells Fargo Securities, told Hart Energy that Williston Basin deal inventory is more than 500,000 net acres—a number he believes is understated.

Krasny said there’s not a swarm of private-equity companies in the Williston, but they still have a presence.

“The place is not completely abandoned,” Krasny said. He said new capital is taking interest in the area and a few private-equity companies may be looking to step up their presence.

However, unlike the smoking hot Permian, the Bakken doesn’t feature a stockpile of equity-backed operators looking to exit after years of acreage development, said Jonathan Garrett, research director for Wood Mackenzie.

“I’d expect more bolt-ons and noncore acreage sales from operators looking to use that cash to bring value forward in more economic parts of their portfolio,” Garrett told Hart Energy via email.

Garrett said company acquisitions will have to justify purchases that either have economics that are more compelling than their current acreage “and/or there must be some synergistic upside.”

Most Bakken operators already have large positions within the basin. And rig counts are proportionately up at the same rate as the Permian and Scoop/Stack/Merge plays. However, the Permian Basin has 350 rigs to the Williston’s 47.

Krasny said the Bakken appears to be improving with ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) and Continental Resources (NYSE: CLR) both running four rigs and Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES) running three.

But with A&D, “some E&Ps will be making a recalibration of their portfolios to see if the Williston is strategic,” he said.

The play has a lineup of strategic companies “to whom the Bakken is of varying degrees of relevant importance.”

Krasny’s take: expect some companies to leave the basin or consolidate.

“I think you’re going to see a movement of private companies that are in the play,” he said. Deals should pick up by the second half of 2017 with the “momentum of the play hopefully continuing in 2018.”

As with other basins getting a taste of technological innovations, sweet spots are working and Krasny said operators indicated that “even on the fringes,” Gen 3 completion techniques may yield solid results.

“The proof is in the pudding,” he said.

Garrett said that, for now, operators financially capable of making deals are likely already well-positioned within a core part of a play or focused on aggressively developing acreage in the Permian.

“That said, the Bakken could attract attention from buyers outside of the United States,” he said.

However, companies with heavy Bakken exposure trade at discounts to their Permian-focused peers.

“A view that oil prices will rise significantly in the near term would provide an M&A spark, as a Bakken acquisition would look like a value play as it is very geologically consistent and its production is about 85% oil on average,” he said.

Darren Barbee can be reached at dbarbee@hartenergy.com.