As winter bears down on North Dakota,the state’s booming oil industry could be sweating out the next several months watching how several converging factors play out.In some ways,life in the Bakken Shale region has never been better.North Dakota state regulators announced yet another monthly production record for oil and gas last week.Crude flows grew by nearly 67,000 barrels per day to hit about 1.36 million b/d in September,up more than 5% from August.Gas output also surged by 3.6% to hit a new record of 2.53 billion cubic feet per day.Operators have combined long laterals and advanced completion recipes to reinvigorate a shale play that many had forgotten about as it was overshadowed by the Permian Basin(EIF Mar.7’18).Now,Bakken operators are stepping out and drilling in areas that were long considered uneconomic.Lynn Helms,the director of North Dakota’s Department of Mineral Resources(DMR),said a new evaluation of break-even oil prices shows it’s become easier to make money in the state’s oil fields.”Virtually anywhere in [western] North Dakota,companies can profitably drill,even at today’s WTI oil prices,”he said.
展开▼
