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North Dakota has joined the ranks of the few places in the world that produce more than a million barrels of oil per day, due in large part to the rich Bakken shale formation in the western part of the state. The April figures released Tuesday by the state’s Department of Mineral Resources showed the record tally. North Dakota had flirted with the million-barrel-per-day mark for months, but the harsh winter slowed the pace. In March, production had hit 977,000 barrels per day. North Dakota’s oil fields now represent more than 12 percent of all U.S. oil production, and more...

Bakken Shale oil production to hit 1.7 million Bpd in 2020 April 09, 2014       mellypage/iStockphoto/Thinkstock   Oil reserves worth approximately $118 billion are still lying under the Bakken/Three Forks Shale play system in Montana and North Dakota, according to a new estimate by research and consultancy group Wood Mackenzie. What's more, the play is extremely profitable, as the analysis claims that each one of the sub-plays yields positive returns.Jonathan Garrett, Americas upstream research analyst for Wood Mackenzie, explained that production from the Bakken/Three Forks Shale is predicted to come in at about 1.1 million barrels per day...

American oil production is surging. Yet oil prices remain near $100 a barrel. You may be wondering: When will all of this additional production finally overtake demand and push the price of oil down? You can find one answer in the price of oil futures -- which say we can expect oil to fall to closer to $80 in the coming few years and stay there.

U.S. crude oil production has grown rapidly in recent years, primarily from light, sweet crude (a characteristic of crude quality, as measured by API gravity and sulfur content) from tight resource formations. Roughly 96% of the 1.8-million-barrel per day (bbl/d) growth in production from 2011 to 2013 consisted of light sweet grades with API gravity of 40 or above and sulfur content of 0.3% or less. EIA's new forecast of U.S. crude production by quality indicates that the U.S. supply of light, sweet crude will continue to outpace that of medium and heavy crude through 2015. More than 60% of...

New projections show oil production soaring as rigs boost efficiency Posted on May 12, 2014 at 6:48 pm by Simone Sebastian in featured, Production, Shale EmailPrint1263 inShare184 An Enervest rig works in the Barnett Shale. (Enervest) HOUSTON — Oil production will continue to soar in the six major U.S. shale plays, with more barrels pumped per rig, according to federal projections released Monday.Total oil production in the six regions is expected to grow to 4.43 million barrels per day in June, an increase of 75,000 barrels per day compared to May, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The federal...

North Dakota officials said early Tuesday that nine people were injured, one critically, when a tornado hit an oil worker camp just south of Watford City, located in the western region of the state about 30 miles southwest of Williston. McKenzie County Emergency Management Director Jerry Samuelson said the tornado destroyed eight trailers where the workers resided. He stated that the critically injured person was transported to a hospital in Minot, N.D. for treatment. The other eight workers were treated and released. Samuelson said that rescue crews are currently searching through a large quantity of debris, although he is confident...

If there was one trait that characterized this year’s Williston Basin Petroleum Conference, it was unabashed pride. Mostly the pride stemmed from North Dakota’s achievement in the last decade after moving from a relatively low amount of oil production (79,000 b/d in early 2004) to approaching 1 million b/d currently, making it the second-largest producing state behind Texas. The oil–Lynn Helms, director of North Dakota’s Oil and Gas Division, claimed the resource could be as much as 300 billion barrels–has brought an unimaginable bounty to the state: low unemployment (averaging 3% state-wide), hordes of job openings (Governor Jack Dalrymple claimed...

Digging Deeper into the Bakken: The Three Forks Oil Formation by Keith Schaefer on November 6, 2013 One year ago, I wrote this story, asking—could the Bakken ever hit 1 million barrels of oil per day (bopd) production?Well, now the Market is asking—when (not if) will it hit 2 million?A massive, 76-page report from Goldman Sachs from late September suggests 2023—that’s another TEN YEARS of growth—with the biggest growth year being next year, in 2014.In fact, they say the worst case scenario for the Bakken is now 1.3 million in 2017. One million? Pfffftttt…yesterday’s news.A smaller examination from Credit Suisse in early October suggests the...

Last week brought news that the Energy Information Agency (EIA) has reduced its estimate of recoverable oil from the Monterey Shale in California from 13.7 billion barrels to 600 million barrels. To put that in perspective, the U.S. consumes 6.9 billion barrels per annum and produces 2.7 billion barrels. The shortfall of production relative to consumption is made good by spending $400 billion a year-odd on imported oil. While the initial estimate for the Monterey Shale can be put down to hubris, there is another tight oil formation in which the EIA’s reserve estimate looks quite good given the vagaries...

Domestic crude makes up half of U.S. East Coast refinery receipts in January 2014 Receipts of domestic crude oil at East Coast (PADD 1) refineries in January were approximately equal to receipts of foreign crude oil (Figure 1), reflecting a very significant change from recent experience. In January 2013, domestic crude oil was only 18% of total PADD 1 crude receipts, and in January 2012 domestic crude accounted for just 5% of PADD 1 receipts. Rising U.S. crude oil production in the Bakken formation in North Dakota combined with the expansion of crude-by-rail infrastructure, which has facilitated movement of Bakken...

The Bakken Shale Hits a Billion. How Much More Is Left in the Tank? By Matt DiLallo | More Articles | Save For Later May 5, 2014 | Comments (0) How soon will the sun set on the Bakken Shale boom? Photo credit: Flickr/katscool.Continental Resources (NYSE: CLR  ) recently noted that the Bakken Shale underneath North Dakota and Montana recently produced its billionth barrel of oil. The company, which has been a leader in developing the field, thinks we've only just begun to recover the oil trapped within these rocks. For a really interesting animation that shows how production in the...

Oil production on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota has become so large that it would rank among the top 10 oil producing states in the nation, a tribal leader said Tuesday. Tex Hall, chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes — Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara — said the more than 1,000 wells in the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation produce in excess of 180,000 barrels of oil a day. Compared directly with state production, that puts them among the top 10 oil producers in the nation. “It’s a modern day gold rush. It’s a modern day Deadwood, South Dakota,”...

Regulators are hopeful that excessive natural gas flaring will soon be a thing of the past in North Dakota. At a public hearing scheduled for April 22, the Mineral Resources director will listen to comments regarding production curtailment to reduce flaring in order to then draft an order to be voted on at the May Industrial Commission meeting. The order will have the force of law, according to Director Lynn Helms, and he hopes to have it take effect June 1 to coincide with the gas capture plans order. In March, the commission voted to require a gas capture plan...

This report is exclusive to freerepublic.com and is intended only to pass observed on-the-ground information to readers. It is not carried on any major news outlet and it won't be in our opinion. You can file this report as conspiracy if needed but it is more suitably filed as accumulation of unexplained Fed action for future analysis. I do ask relevant and pertinent questions throughout the question that Freepers can help answer. One question for which I have affirmative answers is can the federal government move in on oil and gas drillers and takeover at any time declaring any oil...

Net oil imports to the United States could plummet to zero by 2037 because of booming production in South Texas’ Eagle Ford Shale and North Dakota’s Bakken Shale, a branch of the Energy Department projected in a new report.

WILLISTON, N.D. — The blood-drenched man had survived a brutal attack: Beaten with brass knuckles, shocked with a stun gun, slashed with a razor blade, then dumped 40 miles away in Montana, he staggered to a farmhouse for help. His path eventually led authorities back to a quiet backyard in this oil boom town. What they uncovered was a large-scale methamphetamine ring that had found a home in a state long known for its small-town solitude, its slow pace and peaceful pastures. The members of this violent gang were all relative newcomers to Williston. They called themselves "The Family," the...

Looking for a job? North Dakota wants you. In a new recruiting campaign to be rolled out in May, the North Dakota Economic Development Foundation is aiming to fill more than 20,000 jobs -- ranging from truck drivers and oilfield workers to receptionists and food servers. North Dakota's huge oil boom has spurred thousands of job seekers to flock to the state for years now. In some cities, the population has quadrupled. Yet, the growth continues and companies are still so desperate for workers that the state is teaming up with oil giant Hess Corp. to launch an $800,000 campaign...

As the search for natural resources takes the industry to remote locations and developing areas – while creating thousands of new jobs and rapid economic growth – the demand for quality workforce housing intensifies. What was meant to be a temporary accommodation, has now become a permanent home for oilfield workers as the North American energy boom revitalizes cities throughout the region. The energy renaissance in North America has seen its working population swell by as much as 70 percent in certain regions, mainly driven by oilfield workers and those in fringe industries such as construction and transportation. “Many companies...

...a 600-foot oceangoing oil tanker called the Stena Primorsk left the Port of Albany on its maiden voyage down the Hudson River laden with 279,000 barrels of crude oil. It quickly ran aground on a sandbar. ...The ship’s outer hull was breached, but a second hull prevented a spill. Still, the interrupted voyage just 12 miles south of the port signaled a remarkable turnaround for the state’s capital. With little fanfare, this sleepy port has been quietly transformed into a major hub for oil shipments by trains from North Dakota and a key supplier to refiners on the East Coast....

As far as big cities go, Houston isn’t so bad when it comes to renting a small apartment, according to a survey from Apartment Guide. That’s especially true when you compare prices against one surprising little town. The group lists the average monthly cost for a one-bedroom apartment in Houston at $817. Compare that to Los Angeles, where you’ll pay an average of $1,411 for the same dwelling. In the New York area, you can expect that to cost around $1,500. But those aren’t the highest rent costs in the country. That honor goes to Williston, N.D., where the average...