North Dakota’s Exponential Oil Production Growth Sets Another Record In October

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Written By:
Rob Port

Dec 17, 2012
4:29pm

North Dakota’s Department of Mineral Resouces has released its report for October oil production, and not surprisingly the state has set yet another record for monthly output.

Mark Perry has the graph:

Production in October was up 52.5% above a year ago, following increases of 57% in both September and August. In 17 months daily oil production in North Dakota has doubled from 364,000 bpd in May of 2011 to more than 747,000 in October 2012.

The number of active oil wells in North Dakota increased to 7,791 in October, which is a new state record. The wells are getting more efficient, too. The amount of oil produced per well increased to a record-high of 2,973 barrels, which was nearly 17% above where it was a year ago.

This is due to the new “pad drilling” techniques the industry has been deploying in the west (which also has less surface impact). Here’s an explanation of the process from Continental Resources.