North Dakota production drops — again

As this issue of Petroleum News Bakken went to press on March 15, Department of Mineral Resources chief Lynn Helms was getting ready to convene a conference call to explain why the latest North Dakota production numbers had dropped from an average of 770,111 barrels of oil per day in December to 738,022 bopd in January. It was the second time in 21 months that North Dakota’s production had declined.

Output first fell in November to 735,062 bopd from 749,212 bopd in October; a reduction mostly blamed on winter storm Brutus, which brought industry operations to a halt for several days and exposed infrastructure shortcomings, such as the region’s dependence on trucks and a snow and ice-vulnerable road system to transport fracking water and other materials to drill sites, and crude to rail and pipeline terminals.

In January the first major winter storm to hit was Gandolf, starting on Jan. 11 with freezing rain, then heavy snow and winds gusting to 35 miles per hour for two days.

Gandolf was followed by extreme cold and 20 mph winds on Jan. 20 and 21.

The month finished off with wind chill temps as low as 55 below zero on Jan. 30 and 31.

See full report in the next issue of Petroleum News Bakken.

—Kay Cashman

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