Oil production for the Bakken Shale Play dipped below 1 million barrels a day for the first time since 2014.
Related: North Dakota Breaks Records for Oil and Gas
The Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) for ND released August production data for the Bakken and North Dakota, revealing a significant drop in production. Bakken production was down 46,433 barrels per day to 930, 931. For North Dakota, the agency reports an average of 981,039 barrels of oil daily in August, down from 1.029 million barrels of oil daily in July.
The Director of DMR, Jesse Helms, expects the states oil production will continue to decrease over the coming months and will likely level off at 900,000 barrels per day.
““This is a day we had been anticipating but not looking forward to,” said Director Lynn Helms.”
North Dakota also produced 1.64 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day in August, down from 1.69 billion cubic feet daily in July.
The state hit the 1,184,635 b/d mark for oil in September 2014, setting a new record. That's 50,000 more b/d than the previous month. At the same time, they also had record monthly gas production (1,403,448 mcf/d), and reported the highest number of producing wells to date (11,741).
As of last week, the Bakken-Three Forks rig count remains unmoved for the third straight week, with Baker Hughes reporting 30 rigs running across our coverage area by midday Friday.