North Dakota’s March oil production dropped about two percent from the February number.
The state produced just over 1.2 million barrels per day on average.
"We had severe winter weather that first week of March," said North Dakota Mineral Resources director Lynn Helms. He said one of the natural gas plants — Bear Creek — went down because of power interruptions.
"We had a not of wells off," Helms said.
Helms said March production did finish strong.
"We're still anticipating that 1.3 million barrels per day," Helms said. "It just seems like — month after month, we've had something happen."
Helms said one bright spot was a significant increase in production in McLean County
"A well-pad with four wells, three-mile laterals, drilled by Oasis, that were brought on in December," Helms said. "That almost doubled the McLean County production."
Helms said that means McLean County is now considered an oil and gas producing county. That means the "prairie dog" funding from oil taxes, which goes to non-producing counties, goes away.
"But thed county's share of gross production tax and oil extraction tax will more than make up for that," Helms said,
