In 2008, the company was the first operator to drill a long lateral high frac stage well, a key innovation largely responsible for the subsequent surge in fracking across the Bakken and other the U.S. shale oil plays.
[3] Brigham Exploration gained control of some 375,000 acres in the Williston Basin, drilled 100+ horizontal wells, and constructed 800+ miles of pipeline.
[7] In 2017, Brigham founded and continues to serve as the Executive Chairman of Atlas Energy Solutions (NYSE: AESI), a frac sand miner.
Atlas went public in 2023 with a market capitalization of $1.8 billion,[8] continues to trade on the NYSE today, and is the largest proppant producer in the United States.
In 2021, it was reported that for some years Brigham had been driving the creation of a new think tank at Austin to promote limited government, individual freedom, and free markets, provisionally named as the "Liberty Institute".
[9] Brigham is a supporter of the philosophy of Ayn Rand and was reported to drive a Bronco SUV with a bumper sticker reading "Who is John Galt?” echoing her novel Atlas Shrugged.