[The Patriot]

North Dakota has passed Alaska to become the second-leading oil-producing state in the nation, trailing only Texas, state officials said Tuesday.

North Dakota oil drillers pumped 17.8 million barrels in March, with a daily average of 575,490 barrels, Assistant State Mineral Resources Director Bruce Hicks said. That compares with 17.5 million barrels in Alaska, though still far behind Texas.

The state's oil patch is drilling at record levels and shows little sign of slowing down. The 152.9 million barrels of crude oil produced in 2011 set a record, surpassing the previous year's mark by nearly 40 million barrels, according to the state Industrial Commission. The number of wells in the state jumped from 6,726 in February to a record 6,921 in March, Hicks said.

North Dakota owes its rapid rise from No. 9 in just six years to improved horizontal drilling techniques in the rich Bakken shale and Three Forks formations in the western part of the state.

"No. 2, who would have thought?" said Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council, which represents several hundred companies working in the state's oil patch. "In 1999, we had zero rigs working and people left this industry for dead in North Dakota. Technology, geology, price and the business climate changed that."

Ness and Hicks said the achievement is bittersweet, as North Dakota continues to surpass states that have seen a decrease in oil production, including California and Louisiana.

"It's unfortunate the way we overtook them," Hicks said. "We need to get domestic production up so we can wean ourselves from foreign oil."

North Dakota's oil boom also has pushed the state's population to record levels and its unemployment rate the lowest in the nation.

"This is more than oil — it's opportunity," Ness said. "We want these other states moving in the right direction, too. This nation needs to look at energy development. Federal regulatory policies have an impact."

Alaska, which pumped 17.5 million barrels in March, has seen its oil production slip by about 15 million barrels a year since 2008, Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation statistician Steve McMains said. The state expects to tally fewer than 200 million barrels this year. Alaska produced a record 738.5 million barrels in 1988.

North Dakota and Alaska each contributed to about 9 percent of the 178.1 million barrels of U.S. production in February, according to the Energy Department's information administration. Those states in February — along with No. 1 Texas and No. 4 California — contributed to about 45.7 percent of total U.S. production, excluding offshore drilling, records show.

North Dakota crude was fetching about $93.30 a barrel on Tuesday, about $3 less than a year ago. Records show 210 rigs were drilling on Tuesday in the state.

To shake Texas from the top spot, North Dakota would have to nearly double its production. The most recent production numbers from Texas show it produced 1.1 million barrels daily in February and 32.9 million barrels for the whole month. And Texas' oil production has increased more than 8.2 million barrels from February 2011 to February 2012, records show.

"It's going to be tough to catch someone who also is inclining," Hicks said. "There are people out there who say we (North Dakota) could hit a million barrels a day, but it's way too early to say."

Natural gas, a byproduct of oil production in North Dakota, also was pegged at a record 620.8 million cubic feet in March, but about a third of it is being flared because the state lacks collecting systems and pipelines needed to move it to market. Less than 1 percent of natural gas is flared from oil fields nationwide, according to the Energy Information Administration in Washington, D.C.

Officials say about $3 billion in infrastructure improvements are planned in the state to process natural gas and move it to market.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.co...L#ixzz1vBplQCV7

[spookyturtle]

Interesting read. I didn't know ND was that big of a producer.

[luckytxn]

Interesting read. I didn't know ND was that big of a producer.

I have to run Haz Mat up to ND (yes for fracking) sometimes and it is amazing the growth and activity going on there. The only place I have seen comparable is in Texas along the southwest from Laredo to San Antonio where a huge find is being exploited. They also have found a few new big finds in the Gulf. The area in Houston is starting to boom big time. I have been recruited often to go run a truck in the fields but have resisted as I want to be home now with my babe.

Alaska also is supposed to have some potential big time finds

[spookyturtle]

I have to run Haz Mat up to ND (yes for fracking) sometimes and it is amazing the growth and activity going on there. The only place I have seen comparable is in Texas along the southwest from Laredo to San Antonio where a huge find is being exploited. They also have found a few new big finds in the Gulf. The area in Houston is starting to boom big time. I have been recruited often to go run a truck in the fields but have resisted as I want to be home now with my babe.

Alaska also is supposed to have some potential big time finds

I think of North Dakota like Vermont. Only Gary doesn't live there.

[luckytxn]

I think of North Dakota like Vermont. Only Gary doesn't live there.

We all do.

[spookyturtle]

We all do.

Maybe we can start an oil barrel counting thread in Off Topic? What do you think?

[Bad_Daddy]

It's a lot cheaper to produce oil in ND vs Alaska. Alaska's North Slope is at the top of the state on the Arctic Ocean and the enviromental rules up there are the strictest in the world. It's all done on Federal and Alaska native land vs ND where it's done on private land where anything goes. Chances are ND is going to have a big time accident and nobody will be accountable for the fact ND doesn't have any regulations in affect. They just went for the money without doing their homework first.


On a side note ND is full of hot chicks. I went to a family reunion there back in '95 with a reunion so big they held it in the gym at the school. Lots of hot little blue eyed, blonde Norwegian chickies who were looking for a way out of that backwater. First questions they asked were how many TV channels did I have and how far a drive to the nearest stores. That was in Williston, ND.

Edited by Why_Me, 18 May 2012 - 12:38 AM.

[luckytxn]

It's a lot cheaper to produce oil in ND vs Alaska. Alaska's North Slope is at the top of the state on the Arctic Ocean and the enviromental rules up there are the strictest in the world. It's all done on Federal and Alaska native land vs ND where it's done on private land where anything goes. Chances are ND is going to have a big time accident and nobody will be accountable for the fact ND doesn't have any regulations in affect. They just went for the money without doing their homework first.


On a side note ND is full of hot chicks. I went to a family reunion there back in '95 with a reunion so big they held it in the gym at the school. Lots of hot little blue eyed, blonde Norwegian chickies who were looking for a way out of that backwater. First questions they asked were how many TV channels did I have and how far a drive to the nearest stores. That was in Williston, ND.

Williston is where I go to deliver. It is not the little town anymore. It is the center of the boom there. I have to leave right away as there is no place to park. Same near Laredo, Tx.

Maybe we can start an oil barrel counting thread in Off Topic? What do you think?

Even better start a game where someone can post a word and then how many letters in the word. It will go well in the stupid games they have now.

[spookyturtle]

Even better start a game where someone can post a word and then how many letters in the word. It will go well in the stupid games they have now.

It has fallen to a new low, hasn't it?

[Bad_Daddy]

Williston is where I go to deliver. It is not the little town anymore. It is the center of the boom there. I have to leave right away as there is no place to park. Same near Laredo, Tx.



Even better start a game where someone can post a word and then how many letters in the word. It will go well in the stupid games they have now.

My cousin says it's off the hook there. When I was there it was a one bar town with two TV channel and the nearest shopping mall was across the Montana border. Back then you could have your pick of whatever hot little blonde chickie there. They just wanted out. They saw civilization on TV and they wanted a closer look at it.

[luckytxn]

It has fallen to a new low, hasn't it?

Yes it has. Pretty pathetic.

[spookyturtle]

My cousin says it's off the hook there. When I was there it was a one bar town with two TV channel and the nearest shopping mall was across the Montana border. Back then you could have your pick of whatever hot little blonde chickie there. They just wanted out. They saw civilization on TV and they wanted a closer look at it.

So we didn't have to go thru all of this immigration bs? We could have just gone to ND and had our pick? Why didn't anyone tell me this before??

[luckytxn]

My cousin says it's off the hook there. When I was there it was a one bar town with two TV channel and the nearest shopping mall was across the Montana border. Back then you could have your pick of whatever hot little blonde chickie there. They just wanted out. They saw civilization on TV and they wanted a closer look at it.

Now babes are clamoring to get there to extract as much money as possible before the bust is over.

[Bad_Daddy]

So we didn't have to go thru all of this immigration bs? We could have just gone to ND and had our pick? Why didn't anyone tell me this before??

I'm telling ya spooks, I was "this" close to nabbing one when my dad got wind of what me and my uncle were up to and put the kabosh on it.

Now babes are clamoring to get there to extract as much money as possible before the bust is over.

Those gals can sure sniff out a dollar. The maids up on the slope are the same way. They clean your room while your at work, and when you come back to camp ...well for the right price.

Funny story here. My dad was working the shut down in Valdez oil terminal back in the day and he had one of his usual going away parties when he got his layoff slip. He had rolls of film from his fishing trips there when he got off work, and one roll of film the night he left with him and two maids ...in every position you can imagine. When he got back to Washington state my sisters thought they would help daddy out and take his film to Two Hour Photo. They were like 13 and 15 back then. When he got home that night from the bar they had all the bad pics laid out on the dining room table. He was so embarrassed he got a hotel room until he could get another call out from the hall.

[spookyturtle]

What exactly were you and your uncle up to?