Head of Bakken player Continental pursuing 'other options'

The head of Continental Resources, the largest player in North Dakota shale, is leaving to pursue his options elsewhere, the company said.

Continental announced President and Chief Operating Officer Rick Bott had resigned "to pursue other options."

When releasing its second quarter results in August, the company said net production from the Bakken field, spread out over much of North Dakota and Montana, totaled 108,573 barrels of oil equivalent per day during the second quarter, a 23 percent increase year-on-year.

The company boasted that cumulative oil production from the Bakken reserve reached the 1 billion barrel mark at some point during the first quarter. Quarterly profits for the second quarter, however, were down 68 percent.

Chairman and Chief Executive Office Harold Hamm said the company is ahead of its five-year plan to triple production by 2017, drawing on Bakken and its shale reserves in other western states.

"Continental continues its industry leading, oil-concentrated growth and the depth of our bench lends itself to an expansion in the operating management of the company," he said Thursday. "Continental continues on the dynamic path that we have followed for nearly half a century, and the best is yet to come."