Oil production in North Dakota has surpassed a million barrels per day, putting the state among the top oil producers in the world.
"Reaching the 1 million barrel a day mark is a tremendous and timely milestone for the petroleum industry and our state, but it is also a tremendous milestone for our nation," Republican U.S. Sen. John Hoeven said in a statement.
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The state, which reached the milestone in April, now holds 12 percent of the nation’s oil production and
1 percent of global oil production, The Associated Press reported. Only Texas, Alaska, California, and Louisiana have ever produced as much. At present, only Texas; Alberta, Canada; and 19 countries match that amount of production.
Lynn Helms, director of the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources, said she expects the state’s oil production to continue to grow to 1.5 million barrels per day by the end of 2017 and s
ustain that production for 10 years, according to Reuters.
The state’s large areas of Bakken shale oil are credited for the growth.
Winter weather slowed oil production in the state, which is expected to increase during the summer months.
“As the weather improves, operators should have full utilization of all their rigs, and possibly additional completion crews to whittle down the backlog,”
Jonathan Garrett, an upstream analyst at Wood Mackenzie Ltd. in Houston, told Bloomberg News. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see quite a bit of production growth over the summer. It should be pretty impressive.”
Oil was first discovered in North Dakota in 1951, but has been difficult to access. Advances in drilling and fracturing technology have allowed for the state’s oil boom, which has helped reverse 30 years of decline in U.S. oil production.
The U.S. is expected to surpass its 1970 production high of 9.64 million barrels per day within the next year and a half, James Fallon, director of downstream energy at global information firm HIS, told the AP.
"North Dakota could be an OPEC country of its own in terms of production — it's essentially the production of Ecuador," he said, according to the AP.
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