Our Story
Four Generations of Successful Exploration and Discovery
Northern Oil's story is a continuation of a family legacy in oil and gas exploration. The Reger family has been active in the industry since the early 1930s. John Jones, great-grandfather of Northern's CEO, worked for Mobil Oil his entire professional life. The culmination of his career was in the Rockies, where John managed the Williston Basin for Mobil Oil until his death in 1972. Following World War II, Jim Reger, grandfather of Northern's CEO, shelved his plan to practice law and struck out for the oil fields in the Williston Basin of Montana and North Dakota. By the mid-1970s, Jim's firm, Norsthworthy & Reger, had become the pre-eminent oil and gas lease brokerage in the Williston Basin. Norsworthy & Reger managed the Williston Basin operations of several large firms, most notably Patrick Petroleum, a publicly traded company based in Michigan. The Norsworthy & Reger legacy is the Focus Database, the Williston Basin's largest 2D seismic library. This data remains invaluable to today's Northern Oil in identifying and acquiring land most likely to yield substantial production and reserves.
Growing up in the business, Jim's son, James R. (Randy) Reger, established Reger Oil, LLC in Billings, Montana. Randy has been a successful lease broker in the Williston Basin since the 1970s.
Michael Reger, Randy's son, founded Northern Oil in 2006. Northern Oil builds on the family tradition of aggressive, smart acreage acquisition was an early entrant into the Williston Basin's dynamic Bakken play.
In September 2007, Northern Oil announced completion of a private placement to accredited investors totaling $15 million. Those funds will be used for continued acreage acquisitions and development of existing acreage in the Appalachia and Williston Basins, and throughout the Rocky Mountain region.
