Oil production in North Dakota continues to fall as oil prices hover around $45 a barrel. Prairie Public’s Emily Guerin reports from the monthly oil and gas production meeting.
Every month, Department of Mineral Resources Director Lynn Helms picks a theme to describe what’s going on in the Bakken oilfield. This month, he went with a nautical inspiration.
"I called it reefing the sails. That’s what sailors do when they’re running into really rough weather. They pull the sails down to much smaller than normal size to manage the boat and make sure it doesn’t capsize."
That’s what oil companies are doing too -- hunkering down in the rough weather created by low oil prices. They’re drilling fewer wells -- the number of drilling rigs in North Dakota is down to just 67 from 191 a year ago. They’re also producing less oil. In August, they produced a lot less than in July.
"Production is down, significantly down, 20,000 barrels a day."
Oil companies are also waiting as long as possible after drilling to frack wells and make them start producing oil. In fact, Helms says there have never been as many unfracked wells in North Dakota as there right now -- almost 1000.
"The philosophy is at these low oil prices it’s better not to produce the oil, not to tax it, not to add it to an already over supplied market."
Of course, not everyone is riding out the storm. At least two oil companies operating in North Dakota have declared bankruptcy since the downturn began.
