Tuesday, June 12, 2012

America's New No. 2 Oil State - North Dakota - Sets More New Oil Production Records in April

The "Economic Miracle State" of North Dakota pumped another record amount of oil during the month of April at a rate of almost 610,000 barrels per day, which was an increase of 5.5% compared to March.  North Dakota's oil production in April was noteworthy for several reasons: a) it was the first time the state's oil output exceeded 600,000 barrels per day, b) it was the largest year-over-year increase in the state's history at 73.5%, and c) it was the second straight month that North Dakota produced more oil than Alaska, after surpassing Alaska in March for the first time to become the country's No. 2 oil state.    

As a result of the ongoing oil boom in the Bakken area, North Dakota continues to lead the nation with the lowest state unemployment rate at four-year low of 3.0% in April, and more than five percentage points below the national average of 8.2%. There were ten North Dakota counties with jobless rates below 2.0% in April, and Williams County, which is at the center of the Bakken oil boom, boasts the lowest county jobless rate in the country at just 0.7%.  The exponential growth in North Dakota oil production has fueled exponential growth in the state's "Natural Resources and Mining" employment, which has tripled in less than three years, and reached almost 22,000 in April.  

Bottom Line: The ongoing record-setting oil production in North Dakota continues to make it the most economically successful state in the country, with record levels of employment and income growth, a labor shortage, increasing tax revenues, the lowest foreclosure rate in the country, a strong real estate market, and jobless rates in ten counties of the Bakken region below 2.0%.  Call it the "Dakota Model" of job creation and economic prosperity.

15 Comments:

At 6/12/2012 5:38 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Obama missed a huge opportunity. The hatred of all things fossil fuel blinded him.

 
At 6/12/2012 7:31 PM, Blogger rjs said...

According to data obtained by ProPublica, oil companies in North Dakota reported more than 1,000 accidental releases of oil, drilling wastewater or other fluids in 2011, about as many as in the previous two years combined. Many more illicit releases went unreported, state regulators acknowledge, when companies dumped truckloads of toxic fluid along the road or drained waste pits illegally. State officials say most of the releases are small. But in several cases, spills turned out to be far larger than initially thought, totaling millions of gallons. Releases of brine, which is often laced with carcinogenic chemicals and heavy metals, have wiped out aquatic life in streams and wetlands and sterilized farmland. The effects on land can last for years, or even decades. Compounding such problems, state regulators have often been unable — or unwilling — to compel energy companies to clean up their mess, our reporting showed.

http://www.propublica.org/article/the-other-fracking-north-dakotas-oil-boom-brings-damage-along-with-prosperi

 
At 6/12/2012 7:33 PM, Blogger rjs said...

"He was sitting down to have a little lunch and this guy drives up. He thought he was going to give him a ride and as he approached the vehicle, the guy pulls out his weapon and shoots him. It's as simple as that," Meier said.

The shooting follows another random attack earlier this year in which a popular 43-year-old teacher from the oil patch town of Sidney, Mont., was allegedly kidnapped and killed by two Colorado men on their way to the Bakken.

As the two Colorado men wait trial in that case for the alleged murder of teacher Sherry Arnold's death, the case has stoked worries that a once-quiet corner of Montana has been irreversibly altered by the oil boom.

Crime rates across western North Dakota and eastern Montana have spiked as thousands of workers flock to a region that has become one of the top-oil producing areas of the country.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/06/11/national/a080714D64.DTL#ixzz1xVy4vHlM

 
At 6/12/2012 8:09 PM, Blogger Jon Murphy said...

So, what I am hearing from rjs is that we should not have any economic development for fear something bad might happen.

 
At 6/13/2012 5:30 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good call, Jon re: rjs. We have to destroy & tear down North Dakota and make it as economically limp as the rest of the union in order to mitigate against the risk of wastewater leaks..

The only permanent solution will be to outlaw economic growth in North Dakota. Then we'll pass a law requiring economic growth in countries with hyper-regulatory environmentalism.

Then slam dunk economic boom & Obama can waltz to his reelection.

That is how it should work, right?

 
At 6/13/2012 7:20 AM, Blogger Anonymous Bosh said...

The other meme might be:

Workers are evil.

 
At 6/13/2012 4:37 PM, Blogger VangelV said...

Why is a production that averages less than 100 bpd from wells that cost $10 million to drill a positive thing? Note that the well count has doubled since 2006 and a number of old wells have been retired over that time. This shows a very significant and very real depletion problem that is being ignored by the shale oil optimists. From where I stand shale oil is looking a lot like shale gas was looking a few years ago.

 
At 6/15/2012 12:40 AM, Blogger Bakken1515 said...

VangelIV I don't know where you are getting your info but there are well over 100 wells drilled a mounth in ND right now and of those maybe only 3 to 5 of them produce under 100 bbls a day and those are usually not Balkan shale wells

 
At 6/15/2012 12:43 AM, Blogger Bakken1515 said...

I would say a better average would b around 700bbl a day

 
At 6/15/2012 7:48 AM, Blogger VangelV said...

VangelIV I don't know where you are getting your info but there are well over 100 wells drilled a mounth in ND right now and of those maybe only 3 to 5 of them produce under 100 bbls a day and those are usually not Balkan shale wells

I get the information from the published data that we were provided. I think that you are confused by the decent IP values but do not account for the high depletion rates that take production down very rapidly. Take a look at the table that Mark cited and do your own math.

 
At 6/15/2012 7:57 AM, Blogger VangelV said...

I would say a better average would b around 700bbl a day

It is less than 100 bpd. I don't understand why you are so misinformed and why you ignore the fact that we have seen all this before in the Elm Coulee. Montana looked a lot like ND not all that long ago but once the easy oil was gone production began to decline sharply. Production of tight oil and gas from shale is not a solution. It is a desperate measure that shows that the easy oil is gone.

 
At 6/15/2012 12:08 PM, Blogger Bakken1515 said...

You can not compare shale gas to shale oil especially Bakken/ three forks oil in nd. The over all bpd for nd wells is under 100bpd but that is not due to the new Bakken development it is because of all of the mission canyon wells drilled in the 70's and 80's witch account for over 60% of active wells in nd. Also you have repeatedly said that the producers are not making money on this shale play that is wrong. Why would they still be drilling 10 years into this boom? These wells in nd pay them selves off usually within the 2nd year if not the 1st. Most of the Bakken wells are very very new wells so we do not know what the depletion rate will be yet especially with new 20 to 30 stage fracking technology. Having been in the oil industry in nd for the past 8 years I have seen it for myself.

 
At 6/15/2012 12:14 PM, Blogger Bakken1515 said...

And you are wrong the "easy" oil is not gone in mt or in nd. Just now are most of the lease held by drilling that means just now are they going to go back and drill out leases that have 1well on them will get up to 8 wells meaning ur so called "easy" oil has barely been taped

 
At 6/15/2012 3:13 PM, Blogger VangelV said...

You can not compare shale gas to shale oil especially Bakken/ three forks oil in nd. The over all bpd for nd wells is under 100bpd but that is not due to the new Bakken development it is because of all of the mission canyon wells drilled in the 70's and 80's witch account for over 60% of active wells in nd. Also you have repeatedly said that the producers are not making money on this shale play that is wrong. Why would they still be drilling 10 years into this boom? These wells in nd pay them selves off usually within the 2nd year if not the 1st. Most of the Bakken wells are very very new wells so we do not know what the depletion rate will be yet especially with new 20 to 30 stage fracking technology. Having been in the oil industry in nd for the past 8 years I have seen it for myself.

This is not true. Even if we assume that all wells prior to 2006 produce no oil whatsoever the average only goes up to 180 bpd.

Of course, that assumption would not be valid. Wells are retired and drop off all the time. And let us note that some of the earlier wells came from the best parts of the best formation. These would be much more productive than the newer wells drilled in less than prime targets because the producing company needs to keep the lease valid.

We also know the depletion rates for the Bakken wells because the production data is accessible to the analysts. A typical profile can be seen here.

 
At 6/15/2012 3:30 PM, Blogger VangelV said...

And you are wrong the "easy" oil is not gone in mt or in nd. Just now are most of the lease held by drilling that means just now are they going to go back and drill out leases that have 1well on them will get up to 8 wells meaning ur so called "easy" oil has barely been taped.

Of course the easy oil has been tapped. This is why the drilling rigs have mostly left Montana and are now in other locations. This story is not new. What we have seen in Montana was a boom that is now over as production drops around 1% per month. There is no reason to expect that ND will be any different.

https://images.angelpub.com/2012/04/12627/mt-production.jpg

 

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