News
County's oil production numbers
Scott Wagar
01/21/2014
The North Dakota Industrial Commission’s Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) have released its preliminary production figures for oil and gas production for the state of North Dakota for the month of November which shows all time records being broken in production for the state; however, numbers were down in Bottineau County when compared to October.
BOTTINEAU COUNTY
In October, Bottineau County had 552 productive wells which produced 229,998 barrels of oil and 32,351 MCF in gas production. (Investopedia states that MCF means thousand cubic feet. The M is taken from the ancient Roman letter M which stands for one thousands)
In November, the county, saw 548 working wells with preliminary numbers that show 211,334 barrels of oil that were produced and 26,181 MCF in flaring.
STATE
The state had 9,923 active wells in October which produced 29,300,656 barrels of oil in the month with 33,241,990 MCF in gas.
In November, DMR preliminary numbers showed an all time high in the state’s history with 10,022 wells manufacturing oil and gas with 29,191,364 barrels of oil and 32,589,795 MCF in flaring.
DAILY FIGURES
When you break these numbers down into daily figures for oil manufacturing, North Dakota in October went from 945,182 barrels a day to 973,045 barrels a day, which is nearing the one million barrels a day mark, which could be broken in the first couple months of 2014.
Flaring of gas in October equaled out to 1,072,322 MCF per day and rose to 1,086,571 MCF each day in November. The increase in gas production is because of the shut down of the Hess Grant Plant in Tioga for expansion.
LOCATION
Of the locations of the producing wells, 66 percent (6,598) are unconventional Bakken-Three Forks, while the remaining 34 percent (3,425) come from legacy conventional pools, which are pool formations like the Madison, Red River and Spearfish (which Bottineau County is in).
RIG-PERMIT NUMBERS
Even though production is up in the state, drilling rig counts stayed the same and drilling permit activity was down.
“The drilling rig count was unchanged from October to November, but the number of well completions dropped from 166 to 138. Days from spud to initial production remained steady at 114. Investors remain concerned about the uncertainty surrounding federal policies on taxation and hydraulic fracturing regulation,” said Lynn Helms, director and regulator of oil production for the NDIC’s Department of Mineral Resources.
“Drilling permit activity was down in November and December as operators began winter operations. The NDIC goal is to maintain a sufficient permit inventory to accommodate multi-well pads through the end of load restrictions in 2014 as well as the time required to deal with federal hydraulic fracturing rules if required.”