March 20, 2019

County’s wells set records for oil, gas

County’s wells set records for oil, gas

By Neal A. Shipman
Farmer Editor

While North Dakota’s oil production dropped slightly during the month of January, the state set a new record for natural gas this past month.
“We’re off to a good start to 2019,” stated Lynn Helms, North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources director during his monthly Director’s Cut on Friday, March 15. “It was a photo finish in December of 2018. We’re off to a good start with just over 1.4 million barrels per day in January.”
While Helms noted that oil production was down slightly in January, gas production showed a significant increase in production increasing to 84,320,173, a new all-time high.
“We’re back to the pattern where we are seeing gas production increasing much faster than crude oil,” stated Helms. “And that is going to start putting pressure on the gas gathering and processing companies.”
But the good news according to Helms is that North Dakota light sweet crude oil prices are up $25 from December. As of Friday, March 15, North Dakota light sweet crude was trading at $48 per barrel, compared to $22.53 per barrel in December. According to Helms, December’s lower prices were attributed to the shutdown of refining capacity.
While North Dakota showed a slight drop in oil production, that loss could have been far greater had it not been for over a 600,000 barrel production increase from McKenzie County wells.

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